-8.4489, 115.6094
Karangasem
The east. Water palaces, black sand, and ceremonial life that carries on largely unobserved by anyone with a camera.
Waitlist open — Late 2027
Bali Photography Workshop
Five days of street and documentary photography in the Bali most people never photograph.
KarangasemSingarajaMundukDenpasar
Join the waitlistThe premise
Not that Bali
Bali is one of the most photographed places on earth, and almost all of it happens in about six locations. The gates. The swing. The rice terrace with the queue.
This workshop doesn't go to any of them.
We work in Karangasem in the east, Singaraja on the north coast, the Munduk highlands, and the streets of Denpasar — a working Indonesian city of nearly a million people that most visitors only ever see from the airport road.
These are places where things are actually happening. Markets, ceremonies, ordinary afternoons. You'll come back with photographs nobody else has.
What we do
Street and documentary
Five days of shooting, every day, in real situations.
Street work in Denpasar — crowds, markets, and the pace and nerve it takes to photograph strangers well. Documentary work in the east and north — ceremony, ritual, village life, the slower kind of seeing that needs patience and access more than it needs gear.
We shoot early and late, and review work together in between. You'll edit as you go, not three months later when you've forgotten what you were thinking.
Where we work
-8.1120, 115.0880
Singaraja
The old colonial capital on the north coast. Harbour, markets, and a pace that has nothing to do with the south.
-8.2647, 115.0797
Munduk
Highland weather. Cloud, coffee, and the kind of light that arrives for twenty minutes and asks you to be ready.
-8.6705, 115.2126
Denpasar
A working city of nearly a million people, and a genuine street photography town that tourists skip entirely.
The point of it
Finding your own way of seeing
Most photography workshops teach you to make the instructor's pictures. You stand where they stood, at the hour they say, with the settings they recommend, and you go home with a slightly worse version of a photograph that already exists.
This isn't that.
The work is figuring out what you actually respond to, and then building on it. Some people are drawn to faces, some to light, some to gesture, some to the moment just after the moment. That instinct is already there before you arrive — most photographers just haven't been shown how to trust it.
So the days are structured, but the pictures are yours. We spend as much time looking at your work and talking about why you made those choices as we do out shooting.
Selected work
From Praying in the Rain, Faded Gold and Looking for Bali.
Who runs it
M D Morgan
Michael Dean Morgan is an Australian photographer working in documentary and street photography, based in Bali.
Born in Darwin, he studied New Media Design at Charles Darwin and Curtin universities and worked as a studio designer before photography took over. His debut book, Looking for Bali, was published by Afterhours in Jakarta. Praying in the Rain, a body of work on how the Balinese encounter the divine, carries an accompanying essay by the writer Diana Darling. An ongoing series, Electric Dreams, documents the warung coffee stalls and vintage television sets of Indonesia.
The details
Practical
- Length
- 5 days
- Group size
- Maximum 8 photographers
- When
- Late 2027Timed to the dry season. Exact dates being confirmed.
- Where
- Karangasem, Singaraja, Munduk, Denpasar
- Level
- Comfortable shooting in manualNot suitable for absolute beginners.
- Price
- From approximately US$2,750
- Included
- Accommodation, all ground transport, guides and fixers, entrance fees, most meals, daily review and editing sessions
- Not included
- Flights, visa, travel insurance, personal expenses
Waitlist
Dates for May 2027 are being finalised
I'm confirming logistics and locking dates now. The group is capped at eight, and waitlist members get dates and pricing first, before anything goes public.
Joining costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
No spam. A handful of emails a year, and the dates the moment they're set.
Questions
Before you ask
When exactly is it?
May 2027, timed for the dry season. Exact dates are being confirmed and go to the waitlist first.
How much will it cost?
Around US$2,750, covering accommodation, transport, guides, entrance fees and most meals. Final pricing goes out with the dates.
What level do I need to be?
You should be comfortable shooting in manual and have some sense of what you're trying to make. You don't need to be good yet. You do need to not be learning which button is which.
What gear do I need?
One body and one or two lenses you know well. Something in the 28–50mm range does most of this work. Bring a laptop for the editing sessions.
Is it suitable for film shooters?
Yes. Bring plenty — and note that the editing sessions will be less useful to you.
Can my partner come if they don't shoot?
Get in touch. It depends on the group and the accommodation.
Why those four places?
Because almost nobody photographs them. Karangasem and Singaraja are where Balinese ceremonial life carries on largely unobserved, Munduk gives you highland weather and light, and Denpasar is a genuine street photography city that tourists skip entirely.
Is it physically demanding?
Some early starts and a reasonable amount of walking, often in heat. No hiking beyond the ordinary.
What's the group size?
Eight maximum. Any more and you're a tour group, and people stop behaving naturally around you.