Nov 13, 2026 at 10:00 am – Nov 15, 2026 at 4:30 pm
Camera Ministry:
Lens-based Encounters
With Khalik Allah, Shevaun Mizrahi and Jamil GS
Over the past 15 years Khalik Allah has carved out an impressive creative space that’s entirely his own, developing a fiercely original lens-based practice reflecting a holistic artistic philosophy. From street photography to portraiture to poetic documentary, and everything in between, Khalik’s images feel as though they transcend the material context of their creation, while retaining a handmade quality and the very deep and present love for whoever is being represented.
In this workshop we’re excited to invite Khalik to unpack the intricacies of his method, both material and spiritual, walking participants through his singular approach to image-making and the conception of what he refers to as the “Camera Ministry”. Participants will explore lens-based storytelling as a practice of presence, connection and encounter, considering how the camera can become a tool for seeing, relating and connecting to the world around us and the people in it in deeper ways.
On the one hand, Khalik’s practice centers a profound care and attention to the people he encounters. On the other hand, an intricate and intimate knowledge of the tools of photography and cinematography allows the act of image-making itself to be as unobtrusive as possible. Over the course of this intensive workshop, we’ll consider the camera as both a technological object and a kind of spiritual instrument. We’ll be asking questions like: what does it mean to truly see another person? How can a camera become a means for connection rather than simply a tool for observation? How do intuition, repetition, proximity, conversation, trust, and vulnerability enter into the making of an image? What responsibilities come with photographing someone else, and how might intimacy, trust, and presence shape the image?
Communing with Khalik over the weekend will be a carefully selected group of guests and artists that will help to expand on and deepen our understanding of the special alchemy that occurs when a camera lens mediates our encounters with others. Filmmaker, cinematographer and teacher Shevaun Mizrahi will discuss her transition from cinematographer to director, and the ways magical realism and verité interact in her work. Legendary hip-hop photographer and cultural archivist Jamil GS will reflect on photography as a form of cultural memory. Stay tuned for more guest additions to the workshop.
Participants will also get the opportunity to share their own lens-based works with Khalik for a creative feedback session. Spots are limited, so don’t wait to grab yours now!
Details
Open to everyone, though the workshop setting is best suited for filmmakers, film producers, journalists, curators and media artists.
Give us an idea of who you are and why you are coming. When you register you will be asked for a short statement of interest that should briefly describe your experience and a film project (it would be great if you have a project in progress that you would present to the group during the work-in-progress critique sessions), plus a bio. There’s a spot for a link to a work sample (and CV, which would also be nice, but is not required).
$295 early bird registration ends on Nov 7, 2026.
$350 regular registration.
The deposit is non-refundable. Should you need to cancel, you’ll receive half of your registration fee back until Nov 7. After Nov 7, the fee is non-refundable.
No animation software is required for participation in this workshop.
In order to keep costs down, this workshop is a BYOL, i.e. bring your own laptop. Students must be fully proficient using and operating their computers.
To register for a workshop, students must pay in full via card, check, or cash . After the early bird registration deadline of Nov 7, course fees are not refundable or transferable and any withdrawals or deadlines will result in the full cost of the class being forfeit. There will be no exceptions. To withdraw from a course please email info-at-uniondocs.org.
In the event that a workshop does not receive sufficient enrollment, it may be canceled. Students will be notified at least 48 hours prior to the start of a cancelled workshop and will be refunded within 5 business days. If we reschedule a workshop to another date, students are also entitled to a full refund. UnionDocs reserves the right to change instructors without prior notification, and to change class location and meeting times by up to an hour with 48 hours prior notice.
Please note: Participants are accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Schedule
Friday, 13 November
11:30am – 12:00pm Welcome & intros
12:00pm – 2:00pm Intro session with Khalik Allah
2:00pm – 3:00pm Lunch
3:00pm – 5:00pm Session with Shevaun A Mizrahi
5:00pm – 5:30pm Wrap Up Discussion with Khalik additional exercises / discussion
Saturday, 14 November
11:30am – 12:00pm Welcome & intros
12:00pm – 2:00pm Session with Jamil GS
2:00pm – 3:00pm Lunch
3:00pm – 5:00pm Creative session OR work-in-progress with lead instructor
5:00pm – 5:30pm Wrap Up Discussion with Khalik additional exercises / discussion
Sunday, 15 November
11:30am – 12:00pm Warm up, inspiring references, case study, eye training.
12:00pm – 2:00pm Session with Guest (TBC)
2:00pm – 2:30pm Final thoughts, conclusion
Each day follows this general structure, with some minor variations and substitutions:
Warm up, inspiring references, case study, eye training.
Presentation by guest speaker + individual work-in-progress critique
Share / Discussion / Exercise
Presentation by guest speaker + individual work-in-progress critique
Workshop Exercise + Critique
Khalik Allah is a New York-based photographer and filmmaker who practices Camera Ministry with an eye as open as his heart. The resulting work has been described as “street opera” and noted for its beautifully visceral humanity. After a number of short films that reflect relationships between formed through portraiture, Allah advanced his artistry with the feature Field Niggas (2015), shot at nighttime on the corder of Harlem’s 125th St. and Lexington Avenue. This corner also served as thesis for his first photography book Souls Against the Concrete, published by University of Texas Press in 2017. Allah continued with Black Mother (2018), an ecstatic expression of reverence and realities across Jamaica. This award winning film has been seen in festivals, museums and schools around the world; further released in the UK and the US through distributors Dogwoof and Grasshopper Film. Allah’s films are available on the Criterion Channel. Khalik is currently at work on his second photo book from 125th and Lexington.
Shevaun Mizrahi is a director and cinematographer whose work explores time and memory using an experimental approach ranging from cinema verité to magical realism. Her film Distant Constellation premiered at Locarno Festival 2017 winning the Jury Special Mention Award. Shevaun shot and directed Distant Constellation as a one-woman crew over a 6-year period. Its visual language has been compared by critics to Andrei Tarkovsky, Pedro Costa, Roy Andersson and Jia Zhangke. The film was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and included in Film Comment’s “Best Undistributed Films of 2017.” For many years, Shevaun worked as an assistant to cinematographer Ed Lachman. In 2015, she was selected by Filmmaker Magazine as one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film and prior to that she was a Marcie Bloom Fellow in Film, via Sony Pictures Classics. Shevaun’s films have been screened at BFI London Film Festival, IDFA, Jeonju International Film Festival (Best Picture Prize), the Viennale (FIPRESCI Critics Prize), Seville Film Festival (New Waves Non-Fiction Award), Göteborg Film Festival, BAMcinemaFest and True/False. Her work has received support from the IFP Documentary Lab, IFP Project Forum, !f Istanbul DocLab, the True/False Catapult Lab, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA) New York Women in Film & Television, and the Turkish New Film Fund.
Jamil GS (b. 1971, Copenhagen) is a photographer and cultural archivist who has spent three decades shaping the visual language of hip-hop. His work explores how cultural memory is created, preserved and passed between generations. The son of bebop saxophonist Sahib Shihab, he carries a lineage that runs from jazz to hip-hop and from Harlem to Copenhagen.
His practice began in public space, as a graffiti writer in the early 1980s. It grew into a 30-year archive of Hip-Hop, Jazz and Street Culture, including portraits of Jay-Z, D’Angelo, Mary J. Blige, Queen Latifah and A$AP Rocky, New York street photography, and commissions for Nike, Adidas, Supreme and YSL.
Today he works through The Living Archive, an artist-led method that brings together portraiture, oral history, sound and public programming. He applies it chapter by chapter in cities from Copenhagen to Riyadh and Chicago. He calls this building “cultural memory infrastructure”: treating
every portrait as an encounter that carries a responsibility long after the shutter closes.
