Photo Workshop: The Palio di Siena, with Marco Di Lauro

The Palio di Siena, in Italy, is one of the world’s most spectacular horse races. Dating to 1283, the summertime race is a perennial culmination of rivalries between the town’s 17 districts, represented by riders in colorful outfits on bareback horses. Siena’s year virtually revolves around these races, with constant bartering for the best jockeys and best horses, and rehearsals by musicians, standard-bearers and others involved in the elaborate pageantry. For the race, the city center is covered with dirt and transformed into a track, flanked by hordes of spectator, singing ritual chants and utterly absorbed.

Marco Di Lauro, a Reportage photographer based in Italy, is teaming with the photography workshop series Better Moments to lead a 5-day class of 8 to 12 students in photographing the Palio di Siena. Events include the selection of horses by each district, several days of trial runs, pageant rehearsals, the blessing of the jockeys and the main events on the final day. Marco will lead instruction in the technical aspects of photography and how to capture people in a natural environment.

The class takes place from June 28 to July 3, 2016. Visit the Better Moments website for more information.

Marco Di Lauro is an award-winning photographer whose work has appeared in Time Magazine, Newsweek, New York Times Magazine and Der Spiegel among other publications. He has worked for Getty Images Reportage since 2002, focusing largely on conflict, including two years in Iraq, documenting the American invasion. Along with his wartime coverage, Marco has also covered events closer to home, like the Palio di Siena, Easter processions in Sicily and Seville, and the battle of the oranges that breaks out every year in the city of Ivrea in Italy at Carnival time. In all such stories, in Italy or abroad, he attempts to capture the deeper cultural meanings of these rituals.