Exploring aspects of home, both in photos and stories.
Presenting your choice of 5 photos of home.
Materials needed
✓ Prepare your own 5 photos and 1 min stories
as an example.
✓ Participants need time – over night or longer – to take or select the 5 photos symbolising home.
Discuss the timing with the participants.
✓ If you are printing the photos for the participants, please plan this time into your schedule.
✓ Printed photos, clips and pins to attach your photos to a board.
– OR –
✓ photos in digital form e.g. on a USB stick, laptop, if available, a projector.
Proposed location
✓ Pin-boards or wall-space to display the photos – OR – screen or wall-space for projecting the photos.
Steps
1.
Preparation: the facilitator prepares and presents 5 photos, one in each catagory, and tells a short story behind each one, each lasting no more than one minute, so that the whole story lasts 5 mins – on the subject of home. This is an example so that participants really understand what to prepare.
2.
Then the participants have time, at least over night, to select their 5 photos of home.
1. Object (from your home or which symbolises home for you)
2. A city or a place within a city, where you feel at home (for example a café, a park, a lake, a gallery, your apartment).
3. One or more person(s) who make you feel at home.
4. An activity (a hobby, art form, sport, work or other) which makes you feel at home.
5. Future home (this can be a city, an apartment with or without people in it, e.g. focussing on future family or future environment, it can be realistic or a dream).
3.
Participants give their 5 photos to the facilitator on a USB stick or send them per E-mail, they should number them 1 to 5.
The facilitator or two participants prepare to present each collection of 5 photos (20 mins preparation).
OR
They have printed out their photos, or the facilitator(s) have printed out their photos for them. Each participant hangs their photos on a space on the wall or on a pin-board in the space, and arranges them. (20-30 mins)
4.
In pairs, they practice telling a one-minute story behind each photo, and ask each other questions to help them to find the story. If they are working digitally then showing each other their photos on their mobile phones, or next to the printed and hanging photos. (10 min per person = 20 mins)
5.
Each participant stands next to their photos. The group walks around and gathers round the display and the participant tells them the one minute story behind each photo.
Digital photo presentation: Each participant also gets 5 mins showing and storytelling time, and says “next” when one story is finished and they are ready to tell the next one (duration 5 mins x no. of participants),
Closing up
- Discussion: 10 Mins.
- How was the experience?
- If you had to choose one photo, which one would it be?
- Which of your own stories do you enjoy telling the most?
To go further
- 1 story can be selected and developed into a longer story.
- See the One Symbolic Photo exercise.
- All or some of 5 views of home may appear in this story.
- Make a photo exhibition in your workshop space, school, organisation, cultural hall or gallery and have a public showing. The stories can be recorded on a mobile phone and a qr-code made and displayed by the photos.
- See our exercise on preparing an exhibition for details.
