PHOTOGRAPHY / WORKSHOP
Open Aye, in conjunction with the University of Glasgow’s Walk the Global Walk Project, ran a participatory photo walk project with secondary schools across Glasgow. The project aimed to engage young people with Sustainable Development Goal 16: Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions, encouraging them to consider how this goal is relevant to their lives through the lens of their local park.
The project engaged with approximately 80 pupils from three different schools in Glasgow.
The sessions took place in green spaces around the city, where pupils were encouraged to consider their local green space and to question ideas of history, ownership and responsibility, sparking discussions around themes of social, economic and climate justice. By looking at the local, we managed to extrapolate to the global.
The activities were spread across numerous sessions, with the focus being on documentary photography, and included photo walks, picture dialogue, active games, walking debate and the exhibition of work alongside associated discussions about how peace and strong institutions are reliant on justice. By using cameras and photography we were able to actively engage the pupils in the spaces and generate discussion, using the cameras as a tool for the participants to express their ideas surrounding the issues discussed.
Through fun, creative participatory methodologies led in a safe and supportive space, Open Aye was able to provide a platform for the young people to discuss, argue, agree or conclude, as they wish. The participants also gained basic digital photography skills, experienced a sense of purpose within a group and were encouraged to see the places they visited from a different perspective.
The output of the project was that the young people were equipped with visual outputs relating to SDG16 and featuring their suggestions on how to encourage positive action for the future. The pupils Kings Park school also organised an exhibit of their work at a local Friends of Kings Park art exhibition and a short video of the project was produced by Open Aye.
