Open Mic Sessions
Your once a month creative fix
You haven’t picked up your camera in weeks — you know the feeling. Here’s the solution: once a month the whole community comes together, live, to answer the real questions in photography, and hand you a reason to pick it up again.
If this sounds familiar
The gear is extraordinary. The motivation comes and goes.
You have the camera, the lenses, the gear most people only dream about. What is harder to come by is the reason to get out and use it this week — and an honest eye to tell you whether the work is any good.
“How do I stay motivated? How do I stay active? What do I actually need to do?” Those were the real questions in the last Open Mic. The answer was simple. Put the date in your diary, or watch the recording, take on the challenge, and treat it as a creative exercise. Do that and you stay active, and you keep getting better.
It is the difference between just owning a camera and living as a photographic artist. One is simply a purchase; the other is a creative obsession — and the Open Mic sessions are where you keep that obsession alive.
What it is
Once a month, the whole community in one room
A live webinar hosted by the three founders — Martin Osner, Samantha Lee Osner and Ralf Armbrüster — open to every member of the Inspire Community and every student with community access, plus the Academy’s creative advisors.
Live
Real questions, real answers
Bring your questions on photography, art photography and fine art, or drop them into the chat on the night. This is where the interesting conversations happen.
Together
You are not doing this alone
Photographic artists in training from all over, in one place at one time. The room that used to be a small Zoom is now open to far more of you, without losing the personal touch.
A challenge
You leave with something to make
Every session ends with a fresh creative brief for the month — a theme to go and shoot, paint or build. That is the fix. You leave with a reason to create.
Inside a session
About ninety minutes, in three parts
- Q&A — your questions, submitted when you register or dropped in live, across photography, art photography and fine art.
- Last month’s challenge, reviewed — an honest look back at the previous creative brief, with guidance on composition and craft.
- The next challenge — a full theme and brief for the month ahead, to take away and make your own.
Some months we swap the Q&A for a guest discussion on a particular corner of the craft, then a shorter Q&A, before the same creative-brief segment.
Coming up
See the dates for the next sessions
The full schedule of upcoming Open Mic sessions is kept up to date on the Inspire Community page. Every session runs 19h00 to 20h30 GMT+2, and every one is recorded.
View the upcoming datesHow to attend
Two ways in
Open Mic lives inside the Inspire Community. There are two doors, and if you are already studying with us, you are already through one of them.
Option one
Join the Inspire Community
From $29 a month — or take a year and save two months. Open Mic, the monthly creative challenges and the Academy’s creative advisors are all included. Attend live, or watch the recording in your library.
See what’s inside →Option two
Come through a course
Every Martin Osner course includes complimentary Inspire Community access. If you are studying with us, Open Mic is already yours — just show up on the night, or catch the replay.
Start with a course →Watching & recordings
Want to watch the brief, or catch up on a recording?
Here is an example of a monthly creative brief, so you can see exactly what you would be working from.
Every Open Mic session, every replay, and every monthly brief lives inside the Inspire Community.
You need to be a member to watch it and to take part.
Become a memberA thought to ponder
Weigh it against the cost of your gear
You did not think twice about spending the money on your photographic equipment. Now set all of that against $29 a month. For $29 you become a member of the Inspire Community, where you can post your work for honest comment, stay motivated, and sit among other artists who take it as seriously as you do. You get to attend the monthly Open Mic session, and you take part in the creative briefs. This is what will grow your photography. Not another new lens.
Join the Inspire CommunityWhere it leads
The people and the work this creates
The community is not an abstraction. These are the artists who came through it, and the challenges that keep everyone moving.
Put the date in the diary
Join the Inspire Community and the next Open Mic is yours — live or on replay — along with the challenge that gets you creating again.
Join the Inspire CommunityNever studied with us? Start with a course and your community access is included.