The Photography Master Retreat, one week in a remote hamlet in the south of France, is the only workshop where photographers are guided by three mentors to reflect on their work and its meaning.

The Photography Master Retreat , founded in 2015,
will be held in person from June 21 to 28, 2025.

The Photography Master Retreat mentors are dedicated to bringing their experience and insider knowledge of the complex world of professional photography to help established and emerging photographers refine their personal vision, reframe their projects and re-orient them to take their work to the next level. 


I wanted to create a gathering where photographers could productively retire for a week, with time on their side. Take a step back and hopefully one giant leap forward to reconnect with their work and process in a new light.
— Martine Fougeron, #TPMR founder and mentor

Meet our three Mentors

  • Elisabeth Biondi – Independent Curator, Teacher, Writer, and Visuals Editor 1996-2011 at The New Yorker, NY

  • Lyle Rexer – Critic, Curator, and Faculty at SVA, NY

  • Martine Fougeron – Photographer, Artist, Faculty at ICP, NY

AN exceptional retreat.

A retreat is a refuge, a sanctuary, a hideaway, a haven. It is also a departure, a different approach, an adventure, a leave-taking, the beginning of a journey, a change from the usual or expected path, a definite time spent away from one’s normal life.

Take your work to the next level

Find out more on our about page.

APPLY tO our 2025 RETREAT

Find out more in How to Apply.

we create community

Find out about our previous five retreats with videos and testimonials.



A true camaraderie develops between the students
A communal atmosphere permeated all that we did – from our sessions and meetings, to the homemade meals, to our walks and talks. This process combined with time to reflect, provided like a cross between a graduate school critique and an artist colony. Extraordinary how every photographer there had an “epiphany”.
— Aleya #TPMR2016
Breakfast on the rearrace
This is an age of social media and shared images, but rarely do photographers or artists actually get to work together, face to face, to stimulate new ideas and challenge each other creatively… No one leaves Esparon unchanged.
— Lyle Rexer, #TPMR mentor
A critique session with a mentor and the students
This is a very unusual photographic workshop in that it stresses not technical mastery of the camera, nor capitalizing on the Provence location. The retreat already assumes you are an accomplished photographer. Instead, the emphasis is reflecting on one’s trajectory as an artist, rethinking projects, refocusing on clearer directions.
— Raymond #TPMR2017

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