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"   Forgot your camera? Borrow a vintage model, or a new Leica. Photo: Kelly Stuart  &amp;quot;No, people, it&amp;#039;s not a scam! It really is free!&amp;quot; That&amp;#039;s what Josh Katz, the head of Collaborations &amp;amp;amp; Creative Concepts for Levi&amp;#039;s, spends a lot of time saying, down at Levi&amp;#039;s new Photo Workshop space at Deitch Projects in Soho (it opened Friday). The Photo Workshop, the second installment of the company&amp;#039;s ambitious workshop series, welcomes the public with a wide variety of photography-related resources, all available for free. They&amp;#039;ve set up stations for t-shirt printing, an old-fashioned photo booth, a large-format printer, and a professional studio set-up complete with assistants and technicians. Amateur shutterbugs can drop in and borrow (not rent, borrow) a vintage camera for a day, or even a brand new Leica, thanks to a partnership with the German camera maker. Then, bring your snaps to the workshop to get tips and tricks from the denim-apron-ed assistants, or while away an afternoon exploring the works of Yeah Yeah Yeah&amp;#039;s Nick Zinner, The Breslin&amp;#039;s April Bloomfield, Hamburger Eyes, and NYC legend Bruce Davidson, all of whom will drop in to the white-washed space to lend their creative talents to Levi&amp;#039;s efforts. The Workshop, and all the supplies and resources, aren&amp;#039;t just free, there&amp;#039;s zero sales pressure or obtrusive branding, making the whole endeavor almost too good to be true. There&amp;#039;s a small, well-curated retail section focusing on camera equipment, photography books, and a few limited-edition jackets, but 100% of those proceeds support New York-based organizations like Edible Schoolyard, The Five Boroughs Foundation, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. &amp;quot;People don&amp;#039;t believe it, but we really just do this because it&amp;#039;s awesome, and the core values here echo our brand values\u2014we want people to create, to use their hands, to get engaged with the community. I feel like, as a brand, if you are fortunate enough to have the resources to do cool shit, you should!&amp;quot; says Katz. The first Workshops series\u2014a print-making studio in San Francisco, which raised awareness for several Bay Area organizations\u2014was a smashing success, and ended with a speech by a moved-to-tears Alice Waters. &amp;quot;When we made Alice Waters cry, we knew we did something right,&amp;quot; Katz says. The Levi&amp;#039;s Photography Workshop is open now through December 18th at 18 Wooster Street, NYC. Click here for more information and a list of in-workshop events. Click on an image below to launch a slideshow.    The photobooth!  http://fashion.elle.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/LEVIS4.jpg     Fully equipped Macs for your photo retouching.  http://fashion.elle.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/LEVIS3.jpg     An enthusiastic helper!  http://fashion.elle.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/LEVIS2.jpg     Learn your camera parts.  http://fashion.elle.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/LEVIS1.jpg                "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/news/a13697/levis-workshop-is-picture-perfect-lots-of-fun-7853/>