Indigenous Changemaking Photography ‘Participatory photography is letting people make images that tell their own life stories’ – Kyle Knight The biggest institutions in Australian photography joined forces with the Indigenous Sector to design and deliver a development opportunity with young, passionate and creative Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Sydney.
PHOTOLINES – Indigenous Changemaking Photography– brought together ten young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders aged 16-25 to be involved in an eight-week participatory photography program. While the program focuses on the participants’ empowerment and development, it is also an opportunity for the facilitators and volunteers to learn from the young people and to understand their perspectives.
PHOTOLINES aimed to facilitate a process through which the participants would develop their visual literacy, ‘find their voice’ and creatively express something important to them from their own perspective. It also illustrated how much they had to offer and teach by sharing their life skills and experiences.
The program created an informal and innovative space where the participants could learn about photography and changemaking from professionals in the field. Through action learning, the participants worked towards their final photo series displayed here tonight. The cycle of planning (discussing the theory and practice) action (shooting sessions in studios and on the streets), and reflection (critically reviewing images as a group), led the participants to develop their unique photographic perspectives and changemaking mentality. Self-expression is one of the most powerful vehicles for self-empowerment. Through this program, the participants have had the opportunity to be seen, heard and celebrated. We hope this will validate their experience of the world and their contribution to it. We hope it will give them increased confidence in their ideas and their ability to be agents of change in their community.
PHOTOLINES aimed to inspire and empower the participants to become creative learners, thinkers and professionals. Participants have been encouraged to generate income from their images for themselves and their changemaking ideas. Those with a desire to pursue a career in the creative industries are encouraged to apply to work with professional photographers in the Flashpoint Labs Photography Agency.
Photolines was a collaboration led by Flashpoint Labs and involving the following brilliant organisations
