Grassroots Peace Photojournalism Helps Young People Find their Voices

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Grassroots Peace Photojournalism Helps Young People Find their Voices

Yobo
January 24th, 2012

Credit: Peace in Focus

By Anna Derby

We have all been told that a picture is worth a thousand words, but graduates of Peace In Focus’ Grassroots Peace Photojournalism program know that some pictures are worth much more than that. These young people have learned what Peace In Focus co-founder Kate Fedosova calls “photo advocacy.” The program combines technical training in photography and media literacy with leadership training in skills such as self-awareness, critical thinking and creative approaches to conflict resolution. The experience culminates in a photo exhibit that allows the young people to share the issues they care about with their friends, family and community. As Fedosova explains, the program puts “young people in this position of documenting their reality and telling the story of their country: what they live with and what they find important.” Which some would say is priceless.

The idea for Peace In Focus was born during a month-long course on conflict resolution that Fedosova attended with co-founder Kyle Dietrich. She was already working as a studio photographer in her spare time and much of the terminology used when discussing conflict management, mediation and peace building clicked naturally with photography: re-framing an issue, presenting a point-of-view, viewing something through a particular lens. Photography had other advantages as a medium for working with young people emerging from conflict. It is gender-neutral, does not require literacy and can be shared easily – even across borders.

During the pilot project in Burundi, Fedosova found that photography has another advantage as a tool for peacebuilding: “It’s just inherently social.” Burundi had been torn apart by a brutal civil war based on ethnic divisions. The young people who attended the program came from all over – the capital city, rural areas. Some were Hutu, some were Tutsi and others were refugees from Congo. One girl had been recruited to fight for the rebel forces at 13, but had demobilized after losing many friends in the war. In this context, Fedosova discovered the magic that holding a camera brought. “When you bring all these people in on the first day that don’t know each other and come from different backgrounds, and different ethnic lines, and they meet, that’s a potentially uncomfortable situation. But putting a camera in somebody’s hand, right away you just want to turn to the person next to you and take a picture. It’s an icebreaker.”

Once the ice has been broken, the program begins with a process of self-reflection, where participants explore what issues matter to them, asking questions such as “How do I see the world?” or “What are the experiences that are shaping my point of view?” They are also encouraged to have conversations that compare eachother’s different perspectives. “There are so many ways of taking a photo of the same object, and it comes out looking absolutely differently. All of us have our own lens through which we view the world. Photography is a fit to make that visible for young people and to start a conversation about, ‘How do you see things? This is how I see them.’ And is it possible to see them at the same time and both ways being accurate.”

This process of reflection is combined with discussions about media and imagery. “We look at issues that are salient; we look at images that are powerful, and we try to open up the conversation,” explains Fedosova. Peace In Focus partners with local organizations to adapt their curriculum to what is most relevant, but much of the discussion is guided by the young people themselves. “We might introduce a concept of media literacy to them… how to understand what symbols are, and then the rest comes from them.” She cites as an example the concept of beauty. “For every point of view, beautiful means something different. That’s a valuable conversation to have in and of itself: What’s beautiful to you?” She has found this is a conversation that transcends borders. “It’s not that we are coming in with a standard and saying, well this is beautiful. It’s a conversation to have about what beauty means and who defines beauty.”

Another universal subject is the role of the photographer and his or her point of view. “When we look at a photo, when we look at the subject of the photo, we look at how it’s composed, but we never think about the photographer. That is the invisible person.” But to understand the message the photograph is trying to convey, it is crucial to understand the choices made by the photographer. “It’s about highlighting to young people that there is a person who took that image and there’s a reason they selected that image. There is a reason they took it from this angle and that they cropped it to whatever they cropped it to… Maybe they want you to buy something or maybe they want you to feel a certain way. Maybe they want you to support a certain political party. It’s important to think about it. Who is behind the camera? And why? And I think that translates no matter what culture you are in.”

Finally comes the advocacy. Participants look to their greater community. What do they live with and what do they find important? The young people learn to ask, “What are the stories that I think are missing from the narrative in the community? How do I make them more visible?” And finally, “How can I tell the story of an issue so that it comes across to somebody else? So that they care about it? So that they get involved?”

In places as different as Boston and Burundi, participants have tackled similar issues around trash and the environment. Some have looked at development and education. One group in Burundi decided to focus on child labor. Armed with their cameras, they went out into Bujumbura, the capital city, and interviewed young people who were working. They found workers who were much younger than the legal age and they documented this with photographs. After, they debated the issue. The photographs had made the issue more visible and led to a complex discussion contrasting the right to make a living with the right to an education and a childhood.

To bring these conversations to the community at large, the program ends with an exhibit of the images the young people have produced. The exhibits provide a venue for the participants to share their experiences and their vision for change regarding the issues they care about most. As Fedosova explains it, the young people learn, “You don’t need to be a politician in power in order to promote development in your country. You could be a teen that goes out into the community and produces a photo essay about development and you are impacting. You are building awareness in the people around you.” Peace in Focus is guided by the principle that along with documenting reality, photography can shape it. Giving cameras to these young people gives them the opportunity to play a role in shaping their own realities.

Through the Peace In Focus training, young people gain skills that will serve them for a lifetime. They leave with marketable technical skills in photo production and computer literacy. The program also teaches critical thinking, self-awareness, teamwork and collaboration. But Fedosova thinks the most important lesson that participants learn is how to take a creative approach to dealing with conflict. The program’s use of photography “teaches how to deal with issues, with conflict, with social challenges creatively.” By approaching issues visually, participants learn “how to look at them differently, how to apply the skills that they have to telling that story and to making an impact.”

Photography is only one tool that is being used in the newly emerging field of creative peacebuilding. Some organizations are using sport, other music or theater. In time, Fedosova would like Peace In Focus to evolve into an institute that would be a driver for the practice and study of creative peacebuilding of all kinds. “The institute would bring together people from all over the world for an early professional training and teach them how to design a project, how to conduct a needs assessment, how to evaluate it and carry it out. And then have them go back to their communities and actually implement something on the ground.” She thinks this is the best way to spread the practices. “If you train one hundred people, and those hundred people train another hundred people, it really grows the impact. And it creates a sense of community, to create a generation of peacebuilders. To give them the skills they need to go into their communities and actually put it into practice.”

But for now, Peace In Focus will continue to run programs for young people throughout the world who are emerging from conflict, dealing with inequality or recovering from natural disaster. This winter will bring a second program working with young people in Haiti to help them build the skills needed to process what is happening in their community after last year’s devastating earthquake. In contexts such as this, Fedosova believes that photography can play a unifying role. “It can direct energies toward positive outlooks and toward civic engagement.” And it can give voice to a generation of young people whose lives have been disrupted by forces well beyond their control.

To learn more about the work of Peace In Focus, visit http://www.peaceinfocus.org.