This workshop explores ways of engaging with communities and building shared narratives using photography on the field. It explores photography in two contexts: 1) as part of ethnographic research; and 2) as part of researching personal archives. Considering both cases, we aim to discuss and reflect on the ethical responsibility of the researcher/photographer when building collaborative visual narratives with communities and individuals.

Furthermore, we aim to explore how photography can contribute to collaborative knowledge production and what is the researcher/photographer’s responsibility to reflect on its positionality. Finally, this workshop aims to provide an introduction to thinking of photography as a way to decentre the research from the researcher’s agenda and move it towards the collaborator’s interests and facilitate ‘meaningful conversations’.

 

Workshop facilitator:

Dr Andrea Espinoza Carvajal is a lecturer in the Department of War Studies. Her research focuses on violence, gender, and legal pluralism in the Ecuadorian Andes. During her fieldwork, she lived with a Puruhá indigenous community in Llin Llin Pucará (Chimborazo, Ecuador), which allowed her to take pictures and recordings of the community daily activities. Part of her work was presented in the photographic exhibition Hybridity and Identity. Images from the Ecuadorian Andes. Andrea is interested in exploring the use of arts-based research in social science. Her latest project was Portraying indigenous women: Between endurance and resistance, as part of Colectivo El Chaquiñan.

 

Workshop objectives

By the end of the workshop, participants will have:

• Learnt about positionality in the field
• Reflected about the benefits and limitations of researching through using photography
• Thought about coproduction of knowledge using photography
• Learnt basic photographic techniques

 

Workshop schedule

15 mins	Introduction. How are you? How am I? What do we want from this?
30 mins	Presentation: Photography. Moving beyond representation to collaborative research. Why building stories together matters.
10 mins	About basic photographic recommendations. Advice by a photographer. Pre-recorded in video
15 mins	Break
50 mins	Exercise. Participants will be asked to take pictures around the university.
30 mins	Exercise. Discussing the pictures and final comments.

 

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