Framing Expedition on Rui Caria's Notas Fotográficas podcast | Daniel Rodrigues

https://framingexpedition.com/

I sat down with Rui Caria on his podcast Notas Fotográficas to talk about Framing Expedition, the project he and I run together. Rui and I have known each other a long time and worked side by side in the field, including in Ukraine, and that's really where this came from. You learn who someone is when you're both working under pressure.

Framing Expedition started from something I kept running into after a couple of years of teaching. There's a gap between what people learn online and what actually happens on the ground. So this isn't a workshop in the usual sense, and it isn't photo tourism. It's a small group, six people at most, with two of us there so everyone gets real attention.

The point isn't to leave with a folder of nice single frames. It's to learn to build a story, a visual narrative, a series of images that holds together. The work starts before the trip, with a portfolio each person sends so we understand how they see and where the gaps are. Then four or five days on the ground, shooting, editing together, looking hard at each other's work. Porto, Istanbul, Mumbai. And it doesn't end when the trip does: there are two online sessions afterwards, and a printed book for each person with their edited series.

We got into other things too. How photography has moved towards something closer to visual storytelling, where the still image sits alongside video and sound. Learning to stop and look, which sounds obvious but isn't, in a time when everyone shoots constantly and without much thought. Writing with light instead of just hunting for interesting subjects. And the fear of photographing strangers, which almost everyone has, and which the trip is partly there to help you get past.

There's a story in there about Mumbai, at Dhobi Ghat, where Rui and I stood in the same spot and came back with completely different pictures. One of us following colour, the other following movement. That's the whole point, really. There's no single formula.

You can watch the full episode here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9QwF9cf8TM

 Framing Expedition. The upcoming editions:

• Istanbul, 5 to 8 November 2026

• Porto, 10 to 13 December 2026

• Mumbai, 15 to 18 March 2027

• Holi, Vrindavan, 19 to 23 March 2027

• Mumbai and Holi combined, 15 to 23 March 2027

• Pushkar Camel Fair, 10 to 14 November 2027