Capturing Hope: A Participatory Photography Project

What is Participatory Photography?

Participatory photography (PP) is a methodology or tool to engage community members in creatively making change to improve their environments by using photography; it blends a grassroots approach and social action. PP is a type of participatory action research which involves engaging communities in actively examining together current conditions which they experience as problematic in order to improve it.

The three main goals of Photovoice are:

1. To enable people to record and reflect on their community’s strengths and concerns;

2. To promote critical dialogue and knowledge about personal and community issues through large and small group discussions of photographs

3. To reach policy makers.

Another PP methodology is rooted in photojournalism and international development. All PP projects should:

1. Focus on a specific issue;

2. Aim to bring lasting change to participants lives;

3. Empower participants to inform others; and

4. Empower participants to be actively involved in decisions that affect their own lives and their community’s development.

Here is the outline of one of our most recent projects in Manchester.

Meade Hill school Manchester Project Outline

The students at Meade Hill face enormously challenging circumstances. They come from some of the most socio-economically deprived areas in the country and, very often, hugely complex backgrounds and family structures. In their short lives, most have already seen and experienced significant trauma, faced abuse or neglect, and struggle with learning, emotional, social, behavioural and mental health difficulties. Our school is their safe space and the relationships we build with them are enormously positive. We champion, support and protect them; we don’t just educate.

When we have conducted student surveys, results indicate that a number of our students’ self-perceptions are incredibly low. They show a lack of belief in themselves and their abilities. This is also, sadly, often reflected in society’s opinion of them, where they can be seen as a danger and are routinely stigmatised. In actual fact, through our students’ vulnerability and susceptibility to exploitation, society is more often a threat to them.

The pandemic has been incredibly damaging to our students. Some have lost out on education, and opportunities for enrichment and social development. It is likely that some of them will have experienced traumatic circumstances at home due to an extensive period of lockdown. This project would be vital in allowing them a safe and therapeutic space to navigate their feelings, build up their self-esteem and to give them a voice.

This project has the following aims:

• To raise their self-belief

• To allow them to create through self-expression

• To make positive connections with the area they live in

• To give the opportunity to make their voices heard

• To learn new skills through workshops

• To give them an opportunity to build on their social skills and work with new faces

• For them to have ownership their own work

What it is:

Over three days, a group of students (with ASD, ADHD, ODD and attachment disorder as primary learning needs) will have the opportunity to take part in a series of workshops. Working with Brighton-based photographer, writer, filmmaker and artist, Miguel Amortegui, our students will learn fundamental photography skills and through these sessions, they will take pictures of their collective spaces, in the city and outside of it, as well as of themselves and each other, permissions-allowing.

They will also have a writing workshop with their English teacher, where they will produce a creative piece to accompany a picture of their choosing. This will be through poetry or a short monologue.

The work that they create will be curated by themselves and an eBook will be produced, of which they will all receive a copy. This will also be sold and all profits raised will be put back into the project. We hope that if it is successful, this project can be taken and delivered again.

Using links that the organisers have, their work will be displayed in galleries in Manchester and in Brighton, as well as a school-based celebration event.