Photo Reason - A professional photography podcast

Unlike most "short-term" workshops on the market, Photo Reason values "long-term thinking" and "non-singular narratives" in photography. We break the essential skills and knowledge a photographer needs into four modules, each like a "puzzle piece" — so photographers can find exactly the piece they need to refine their craft, optimize their working methods, and clarify their path forward.

The teaching logic of Puzzle Plan draws on the long-form course traditions of the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York and Magnum Photos in Paris, co-taught by two photographers who graduated from these two institutions respectively — Roban and Pan.

Season two of Puzzle Plan runs from November 2025 to February 2026 across four modules. Each module is relatively independent yet interconnected, so students may join the whole program or just one or several modules. Full-program students additionally receive an online portfolio review with a Magnum photographer after the program concludes.

About the Mentors

Roban and Pan have completely different focuses, shooting methods, and career paths, as well as distinct personalities and styles — a setup that brings students more perspectives and more diverse ways of thinking. At the same time, because ICP and Magnum Photos share almost the same lineage (ICP founder Cornell Capa and Magnum founder Robert Capa were brothers) and course logic, the two mentors remain highly aligned on fundamental technique and artistic ideas, avoiding the "conflicting philosophies" common to multi-mentor setups.

Roban (Ruobang Wang)

Partner & host of the photography podcast brand Photo Reason, winner of the US PDN Photography Award and the fifth RITA K Hillman Photography Foundation grant, and a National Geographic photographer. He graduated from the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York in September 2017, where he received the Wall Street Journal Scholarship.

His work has appeared in National Geographic, PDN, and Chinese Photographers, among others, and has been exhibited at the Lishui Photography Festival, Pingyao International Photography Festival, Taiwan WONDER FOTO DAY, and ICP in New York. In 2020 he published the photobook "Don't Stay." Personal website: www.robanwang.com.

Awards: 2016.04 "Old Smith" won the Silver Award at the 3rd Kuwait International Photography Competition; 2018.05 "Disappearing Forests" won a 2018 PDN PHOTO ANNUAL award; 2018.09 nominated for the Magnum Foundation Abigail Cohen Documentary Photography Award; 2020.03 received ICP's fifth Hillman Foundation Scholarship; 2024.02 shortlisted for the 2023 GOMMA Photography Award; 2024.09 shortlisted for the Pingyao International Photography Festival Kunpeng Award; 2025.03 nominated for the World Press Photo Joop Swart MasterClass.

Exhibitions: 2015.11 "Boli" at the 2015 Lishui Photography Festival; 2016.09 "Transnational Miners" at the Pingyao International Photography Festival; 2017.03 "Kuwait" at Taiwan WONDER FOTO DAY; 2018.06 "The Faith Of Bowne Street" at ICP New York's "Signal Crossings"; 2019.06 the "Large Format in Contemporary Photography" group show at Yingtian International Gallery; 2020.11 "Yellow Dragon" at Zhejiang Exhibition Hall; 2021.04 the "Contemporary Art Large Format 7-Person Show" at Mingzhu Art Center; 2022.06 "No Standing Anytime" at the AIPAD Photo Show, New York; 2022.08 "Fish or Not" at Gongwang Art Museum.

Works are from the projects "Yellow Dragon" and "Myanmar."

©Roban (Ruobang Wang)

Pan (Chaoqun Pan)

Partner & host of the photography podcast brand Photo Reason, graduate of the Creative Documentary and Photojournalism program at Magnum Photos in Paris. He was ZEISS China's first signed photographer, and is currently a guest lecturer in photographic art and personal-project courses at the French art schools I'ECV and École EAC.

Known for poetic landscape photography and long-term typological projects, his photobook "mind the gap" is in preparation. His work is currently represented by The Muisca Art Space, a gallery in the Marais district of Paris. Personal website: chaoqunpan.com.

Solo exhibitions: "it doesn't have to rhyme" at OWSPACE, Beijing — 2025.08; "it doesn't have to rhyme" at Photo Reason in Space, Hangzhou — 2025.06; "ECHOS of SILENCE" at The Muisca gallery, Le Marais, Paris — 2024.10.

Group exhibitions: The Muisca gallery (Paris) 2025.07 "SOUS LES VILLES, LA LUMIÈRE," 2025.05 "PARIS UNIVERSEL," 2025.02 "SOUVENIRS LATENTES," 2024.12 "UN INSTANT DE CLARTE"; Magnum Gallery (Paris) 2024.06; PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai 2024.04; Modern Art Museum Shanghai 2021.11.

Awards: Artexpo New York 2025 Photo Contest — Finalist. Other: columnist for Photoworld magazine since 2024.01; lecturer for FUJI X-SPACE since 2025.03; lecturer for l'ECV / EAC since 2021.05. Works are from the projects "it doesn't have to rhyme," "kyoto harmony," and "mind the gap."

©Pan (Chaoqun Pan)

Program Structure

Season two of Puzzle Plan runs from November 2025 to February 2026. Each module takes one full weekend (Saturday + Sunday, usually the second-to-last weekend of the month, adjusted around holidays), balancing theory and practice. The modules are interconnected yet relatively independent, so students may join the whole program or any one or several modules.

November (22 / 23) · Personal Projects & Building a Workflow

Module goal: To help students establish a professional image-management logic and an efficient workflow, and to start their own personal photography project from where they are.

Pain points addressed: Not knowing where to start a personal project, or how a professional photographer's workflow works.

Day 1 morning: Mentors' project introductions + student introductions
Day 1 afternoon: Topic discussion + sharing inspiration
Day 2 morning: Image management & workflow theory
Day 2 afternoon: Image management & workflow practice

December (13 / 14) · Equipment & Expression

Module goal: To help students understand the relationship between equipment and subject, and choose the right gear and working methods for their personal project. The module includes a dedicated walkthrough of large-format (technical) cameras plus a field-shooting experience.

Pain points addressed: Not understanding how equipment characteristics relate to a photographic project, or how to choose the right gear for a personal project.

Day 1 morning: Equipment & expression workshop
Day 1 afternoon: Student sharing + discussion
Day 2 morning: Large-format (technical) camera theory
Day 2 afternoon: Large-format (technical) camera field shooting

January (24 / 25) · Editing & Sequencing

Module goal: To help students understand the importance and basic logic of editing and sequencing, using Magnum Photos' distinctive sequencing exercise to rapidly advance their editing skills.

Pain points addressed: Not appreciating the importance of editing and sequencing in a body of work, and lacking the thinking and methodology to do it.

Day 1 morning: Mentors' project introductions + fundamentals of editing & sequencing
Day 1 afternoon: The Magnum Photos sequencing exercise
Day 2 morning: Sequencing practice with students' work
Day 2 afternoon: Sequencing practice with students' work + presentation

February (time TBD) · Visual Narrative & Photobook Demo

Module goal: To help students find narrative inspiration and methods in photobooks, understand the diverse forms and possibilities of the photobook, and produce their own handmade photobook dummy. (As this month is close to Chinese New Year, the exact class dates will be decided together with enrolled students.)

Pain points addressed: Not knowing how to read a photobook, how a photographic project relates to a photobook, and never having tried making a handmade photobook.

Day 1 morning: Fundamentals of visual narrative + photobook case studies
Day 1 afternoon: Discussion of photobook form and content
Day 2 morning: Print-output settings + bookmaking basics in LR / InDesign
Day 2 afternoon: Handmade photobook demo

Registration

Program Fee

Single "puzzle" module: ¥2,980 per person (RMB); full Puzzle Plan program: ¥11,920 per person (RMB).

Full-program students additionally receive two 1–1.5 hour 1-on-1 sessions and an offline opportunity to exhibit their work individually or in a group.

Capacity per module

No more than 10 people

Location

"Photo Reason / in Space." 2F, OneWay Space (Raffles City Hangzhou store), Building B, Ocean Raffles City, 58 Lishui Road, Gongshu District, Hangzhou

Headline Perk: Portfolio Review

Students who complete the full "Puzzle Plan 2.0" program will, after it concludes, receive a portfolio review with a Photo Reason Academy academic advisor. Photo Reason Academy currently has three academic advisors, all of whom are Magnum photographers.

Students may choose any one of them for a 1–1.5 hour online portfolio review; free translation is provided for students who are not comfortable communicating in English.

Other Perks

Whether joining a single "puzzle" module or the full Puzzle Plan program, students can join the Photo Reason Pro community for exclusive photography news and resource sharing, plus free borrowing privileges for Photo Reason's photobooks and equipment.
Photo Reason offers all students free laptop-screen calibration at its offline space (calibration devices can also be borrowed).
Photo Reason provides all students with a free online portfolio page (e.g. a domain like roban.photoreason.art), with update guidance from our technical specialist CC (Chengchen Wang).
All students get priority access to Photo Reason's limited-capacity special photography activities in the future (master workshops, overseas special photography study tours, Magnum office visit lectures, and more).

Please note: Puzzle Plan runs on a recurring basis, 2–3 sessions per year. Students already enrolled in a session or module who are temporarily unable to attend may defer to the same module in the next session or switch to another module; please inquire for other refund and change terms.

How to Register

1.Click the registration link below and complete the form as prompted.
2.For inquiries and registration, add WeChat: bonbondepan.

Go to registration →

Why Puzzle Plan?

Season one delivered clear results. Fourteen students took part, six of them for the full program; by the end of the final module, every student was very satisfied with how their work turned out.
A genuinely field-tested photographic logic and teaching model. The two mentors graduated from the course programs of the International Center of Photography (ICP) and Magnum Photos respectively, and both have long teaching experience: Roban has long led online and offline workshop courses and is frequently invited to give photography lectures; Pan ran the "ZEISS Academy" courses for ZEISS, has long offered online workshops and bootcamps, currently teaches photographic art at French art schools, and is a guest photography-culture lecturer for FUJI X-SPACE.
A course genuinely designed by working photographers. We believe the premise of teaching photography is that you are truly creating work yourself, not theorizing on paper. Both Roban and Pan are committed long-term photographers with ongoing projects, so they understand the real pain points of creation and students' actual needs, and can exchange ideas and grow together with everyone.
The advantage of a physical offline space. The course is held at the "Photo Reason / in Space." offline space — convenient to reach and comfortable. The space is equipped with professional visualization gear and holds 500+ photobooks to read (during class we can even pull a fitting example straight off the shelf as reference). The offline experience is completely different from online.
Photo Reason's consistently professional and sincere attitude. Photo Reason is a photography podcast with a point of view; since launching in February 2023 it has published nearly a hundred episodes, and listeners can attest to both its update frequency and content consistency. Photo Reason's output has always striven to be "refined and beautiful," and this workshop series is no exception.

Other Information

Language of Instruction: Chinese
Inquiries & Registration: WeChat: bonbondepan

"Puzzle Plan 2.0" — Photo Reason Offline (Hangzhou) Photography Workshop Series