workshop: storytelling

Media: photography
Date: February 18& 25 2007
Location: Nabatiyeh
Facilitators: Jessica Murray / Jan Mun
Kamel Youssef Jaber Social & Cultural Center - Nabatiyeh Branch
Participants: Moustafa al Hamoud, Amer Fayad, Souhair Boukhdoud, Mohammad Fayad, Farah Saad, Laila Assi, Hasan Mehyeddin, Jana Houmani, Diana Zreik, Malak Hamdan.

view the photo-narratives >>

The idea behind the "Storytelling" workshop was to develop narration tools using still photography. Ten participants signed up - both males and females aged 16 years old to almost fifty - all from south Lebanon . During the first session there were discussions on individual story narratives, one-on-one technical instruction, and examples of student work from the Open Society Institute's 'Moving Walls' workshops shown at the conclusion.  

"They really enjoyed looking at other people's work," says Jan Mun, co-instructing the workshop with Jessica Murray. "And we didn't want to intimidate them with work by photographers like Sebastian Salgado, instead we wanted to inspire showing other student work."

The ten participants each borrowed a digital camera for the week, and brought in their photography the following session. Their images were subsequently downloaded onto laptops and the class split into two groups to edit.

"We collectively identified what each person's story was, then looked at the images and decided what was possible," explains Jan, who worked with the session's five English speakers, while Jessica and Mahmoud Zeidan facilitated the rest in translated Arabic. "Then we debated the images people wanted left in - we went through three or four rounds of tightening and narrowing down to where each story finally worked," Jan adds.

The two groups edited long into the night, with a final showing of the finished photographic narratives for the whole group at the end. "We were surprised that, when we went well over time in the last session, how, although we were all so tired, everyone had this enthusiasm and dedication," reports Jessica.

The final result is ten carefully constructed photographic narratives. Each student received a DVD with their edited work, and will receive a set of their photographs in hard copy. A public exhibit of their work is being planned for the summer, in addition to being posted on the Lens on Lebanon website.

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