-8.4489, 115.6094
Karangasem
The east. Water palaces, black sand, and ceremonial life that carries on largely unobserved by anyone with a camera.
Bookings open — four departures in 2027
Bali Photography Workshop
Five days of street and documentary photography in the Bali most people never photograph.
KarangasemSingarajaMundukDenpasar
Reserve a place
The 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 go through your work with you 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.
Group size
Six people, not sixteen
Six is the number where a workshop still works. Everyone gets looked at properly every day, one to one. Nobody spends the week at the back of a scrum photographing the backs of other photographers.
It also matters in the street. Six people moving through a market is a small group of visitors. Sixteen is an event, and everything stops being itself the moment you arrive.
All levels are welcome inside that six, because with six there is room for that. What each person needs is different and there is time to give it.
The route
Five days, four places
Departures are spread across the year on purpose. The wet season gets written up as the time to avoid, which is wrong for this kind of work — rain empties the tourist locations, softens the light all day instead of for an hour at each end, and puts umbrellas, ponchos and reflections into the street. Most of the pictures on this page were made in it.
The route runs anticlockwise from Denpasar — east to Karangasem, up over the north coast to Singaraja, into the Munduk highlands, and back down. It is built around light and around when places are actually busy, which mostly means early.
Every day is a working day. There is no free day in the middle where you are left to your own devices, and every evening ends with a review session — your frames on a screen, the two of us.
Provisional. The shape holds; individual days shift with ceremony dates, which are set by the Balinese calendar rather than by us.
Day 01
Arrival, and the first walk
Meet in the afternoon, then straight out. Pasar Badung and the streets around it at the end of the day. The point of the first evening is to get the newness out of your system and find out how you work when nothing is arranged for you.
Evening review. Your first edit, one to one. Not a critique yet — a look at what you reach for when you are not thinking about it.
Day 02
East, to Karangasem
Early start for the drive east. Water palaces early, then the villages inland where ceremonial life carries on with nobody photographing it. Black sand in the late afternoon. Long day, and the one most likely to move if there is a ceremony worth being at instead.
Evening review. Your day’s take on screen, one to one. This is where most of the teaching happens.
Day 03
Over to the north coast
The old colonial capital. Harbour at first light, then the morning market, which is the busiest hour of the whole week and the best test of working close. Afternoon back out on the harbour road and through the Chinatown streets behind it.
Evening review. Working close is the hardest thing here, so this one is specifically about distance — what changed when you stepped nearer, and what it cost you.
Day 04
Up into the highlands
Up into cloud. Coffee and clove country, plantation villages, and weather that does most of the work for you. Cold, wet and quiet — a deliberate change of register after three days of heat and crowds.
Evening review. Halfway point. We look at your week so far as a body of work rather than as good and bad frames, and decide what you are chasing for the last two days.
Day 05
Sequence, and review
Back down in the morning with one last shoot on the way. The afternoon is the part most workshops skip: building a sequence from the week, one on one, and working out what you actually made rather than what you happened to photograph.
Final review. Your finished edit, sequenced, and gone through one to one.
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.
You will leave a better photographer than you arrived. That is the job, and it is what I am working on all week — not the itinerary, not the locations, you.
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.
Most people who come can already make a competent frame. The harder thing, and the thing almost nobody is taught, is working out what they are actually trying to say. Everyone has something. Five days of shooting, and of going through the results with someone whose job it is to notice, is usually enough to find out what yours is.
And it doesn't stay in Bali. The island is the subject for the week, but what you are learning is more general than that — how to recognise what you are looking for, how to get it into the frame, and how to put frames together so they tell a story. That comes home with you and works just as well on your own street.
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.
How we work
Real situations, not set pieces
A great deal of Bali photography is made in arranged set-ups — models booked for the morning, a fisherman throwing a net on cue, smoke drifting through the palms at exactly the right moment. It photographs beautifully and teaches you very little, because photographing an arrangement and photographing a situation are not the same skill.
This week is built on the second one. Ceremonies happening because it is the day for them, markets trading because it is morning, streets busy because that is where people are. It is harder. Some mornings produce very little. That is the job, and learning to work inside it is most of what you take home.
Where someone is photographed closely, they are asked, and anything customary is paid by us rather than by you.
Selected work
From Praying in the Rain.
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 daysFull tuition every day. There is no free day.
- Group size
- Maximum 6 photographersMinimum 4 for a departure to run.
- When
- 4 departures in 2027Dates and availability below.
- Where
- Karangasem, Singaraja, Munduk, Denpasar
- Level
- AnyBeginners welcome. Six places means each person is taught at the level they are actually at.
- Price
- US$2,500 per personUS dollars. US$350 deposit holds a place; the balance is due eight weeks before departure.
- Included
-
- Accommodation for the five nights, private room for each person — no sharing, no single supplement
- All ground transport, including airport pick-up and drop-off
- All meals from the first evening to the last morning
- Bottled water throughout
- All entrance fees and temple donations
- Local guides and fixers
- Anything customary paid to people who are photographed
- Field tuition, every day
- Daily one-to-one review sessions
- Editing tuition
- Not included
-
- International and domestic flights
- Indonesian visa
- Travel insurance, which is a condition of joining
- Alcohol
- Nights before or after the workshop
- Laundry, tips to workshop staff, and anything else personal
Press
On the work
“Michael Dean Morgan's compelling depictions of Bali provide a refreshing alternative to pervasive renditions of the Indonesian Isle.”
Josh Bright, The Independent Photographer, 2022
“Each photograph is able to evoke smells, mystical and aromatic sensations of Balinese reality.”
Giorgia Massari, Collater.al
“A sustained inquiry into how ritual and contemporary existence share the same space.”
Uday Khambadkone, Between, Still, 2026
Michael's first book, Looking for Bali, was published by Afterhours Books in Jakarta.
Further reading
Notes on the places we work
Longer pieces on the four locations, on when to come, and on how the ceremonial calendar decides what is actually happening while you are there.
- Photographing Karangasem: the east Bali most visitors drive past
- Singaraja and the north coast: the Bali that was the capital
- Munduk and the highlands: photographing Bali inside a cloud
- Denpasar street photography: the city visitors only see from the airport road
- The Balinese ceremony calendar, and why it matters if you photograph Bali
- The best time of year to photograph Bali
Dates
Four departures in 2027
Each one is five days, 6 people, US$2,500 per person. Dates are published well ahead so there is time to find sensible flights.
4–8 March 2027
Ends on the Ogoh-ogoh parade, the night before Nyepi.
12–16 May 2027
The first of the dry months, and the island is still green.
11–15 August 2027
Peak travel month — the island is busy, which is its own subject.
6–10 October 2027
Shoulder season. Quieter island, and the light has turned.
The March departure
You will be here for the silence
This one ends on the evening of the Ogoh-ogoh parade — giant demon effigies carried through the streets and burned, the loudest night of the Balinese year. The next day, 9 March 2027, is Nyepi.
For twenty-four hours the entire island stops. No traffic, no work, no lights after dark, nobody outside. The airport closes completely, so you cannot leave until 10 March 2027 and will need a night beyond the workshop.
That extra night is the point rather than the cost. Almost no visitor ever sees Bali silent, and you cannot photograph it — that is the rule, and we keep it. You spend the day editing the week's work with the island switched off outside. It is the best editing day I know of.
Book your flight out on 10 March 2027 or later. Nothing flies before then.
Privately
If none of those weeks work
Four departures is four weeks in a year, and they will not suit everyone. I also run the week privately, for one photographer or two, on dates of your own.
It is the same work in the same places, and it can be shorter, longer, or pointed at something particular if you arrive with a project rather than a week to fill. A couple where only one of you photographs is fine — say so and we will build around it.
What it costs depends on what you want — how many days, how far we travel, and whether it is a straight week of shooting or built around a project you already have. It covers the same things a place on a departure covers. Tell me what you have in mind and I will price it.
Booking
How booking works
A US$350 deposit holds your place. The balance is due eight weeks before departure. There is no online payment on this site — tell me which departure you want and I will send you the details and an invoice.
A departure needs 4 people to run. That decision is made 8 weeks before the start date, which is before your balance is due and while flights are still changeable. If it does not run, your deposit is refunded in full or moved to another departure, whichever you prefer.
Travel insurance is a condition of joining, and needs to cover you for the dates you are here.
Reserve a place
Tell me which dates
This reaches me directly, not a mailing list. I reply to every one, usually within a day.
No deposit is taken here and nothing is charged automatically. Your address is used to answer you and nothing else.
Questions
Before you ask
Is this a photography tour or a workshop?
Both words get used loosely, so it is worth being precise. A Bali photography tour usually means being driven to locations and photographing what you are shown. This is a workshop. The locations are raw material, not the product — the work is in how you photograph them and what you do with the frames afterwards. There is an edit every day and a proper review at the end.
How is this different from other Bali photography tours?
Most Bali photography tours run the same circuit of six or seven locations in the south. The gates, the swing, the rice terrace with the queue. This one goes to none of them. We work in Karangasem, Singaraja, Munduk and Denpasar, and the group is capped at 6 so that people carry on behaving normally around you. The work is with real situations rather than arranged ones.
When exactly is it?
There are 4 departures in 2027, listed above with their dates and remaining places. The next is 4–8 March 2027. Dates are published three to four months ahead at least, so there is time to book flights sensibly.
How much is it, and what does that cover?
US$2,500 per person, in US dollars. That covers your own room for five nights, all ground transport including airport transfers, all meals, water, every entrance fee and donation, guides and fixers, and the tuition — in the field, in the review sessions and in editing. Flights, visa, insurance and alcohol are not included. The full list is above.
What will I come away with?
A body of work from the week, edited and sequenced rather than left in a folder to deal with later. And, more usefully, a clearer idea of what you are trying to say with your photography and how to go about saying it. That part isn't about Bali — it works on whatever you photograph once you are home.
What level do I need to be?
Any. Beginners are welcome, and so are people who have been at it for thirty years. That is what six places is for — the week is taught at the level each person is actually at, rather than at an average nobody is standing on.
What camera do I need?
Whatever you already have and like using. Digital or film, one lens or three, a phone if that is what you photograph with. Nothing in the week depends on particular equipment and no part of it is a demonstration of anyone's kit. Bring a laptop if you have one, 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?
6 maximum. Any more and you're a tour group, and people stop behaving naturally around you. It also means everyone's work gets looked at properly every day.
What kind of situations do we photograph?
Real ones. Ceremonies happening because it is the day for them, markets because it is morning, streets because that is where people are. This is not a set-piece tour where a scene is arranged and six people photograph it from the same spot — the work is learning to handle whatever is in front of you, which is harder and is the skill worth having. Where someone is photographed closely they are asked, and anything customary is paid by us rather than by you.
How do I book, and when do I pay?
A US$350 deposit holds your place, and the balance is due eight weeks before departure. Nothing is charged on this site — you tell me which departure you want, I send you the details and an invoice.
What if not enough people book?
A departure runs with 4 people or more. If it is short, I decide 8 weeks before the start date — before your balance is due, and while flights can still be changed. Your deposit then comes back in full, or moves to another departure. I would rather tell you that plainly than pretend it never happens.
Do I have to share a room?
No. Everyone gets their own room and there is no single supplement to pay.
What happens with Nyepi on the March workshop?
It ends on the night of the Ogoh-ogoh parade, and the following day the island shuts down completely for Nyepi — including the airport. You will need one extra night and cannot fly out until the day after. It is the quietest day you will ever spend, and we use it to edit.