Background

This is a six-week photography course offered to graduates of the Odyssey Project in 2012. Ten participants developed basic photography skills to tell their stories, experiences, perspectives, and emotions through the photos they take, and shared them with audiences through exhibitions at Chicago Cultural Center, Calles y Sueños (a cultural gallery in Pilsen, a neighborhood of Chicago), and the public library in Cicero (a suburb of Chicago).

During the six-week period, the ten participants and I met every week for three hours at a time in the evening from September to October at the Illinois Humanities Council in Chicago. I asked each participant to bring a digital camera. Materials for printing and framing photos were provided to all the participants.

The participants were given three prompts: (1) Take five photos of people who are important to you; (2) Take photos to describe an event or your surroundings; and (3) Think of what is important to you or stories that you want to share with other people and visualize them through photos. At the end of the course, each participant selected several photos for the exhibitions.

Artists

• Ana
• Aracele
• Christina
• Danny
• Janice
• Lori
• Marco
• Patricia
• Rita
• Stephanie

Acknowledgement

This workshop was made possible through generous support from the Puffin Foundation, Illinois Humanities Council, and Nia Gabrile (an Odyssey Project graduate), who brought her own printer and helped the process of printing photos.

Related literature

Yang, K. (2014). Participatory photography: Can it help adult learners develop agency? International Journal of Lifelong Education, 33(2), 233-249.