Contributors
A Peace of My Mind, USA
A Peace of My Mind is a multimedia arts project, created by American photographer John Noltner, that uses photographic portraits and personal stories to bridge divides and encourage dialogue around important issues.
Noltner, John. (2021) Portraits of Peace: Searching for Hope in a Divided America. Broadleaf Books
Klein, M. (2014). Teaching a Peace of My Mind: An Educational Guide and an a companion text to the exhibition by John Noltner
Belfast Exposed, Northern Ireland
Belfast Exposed is the leading photographic gallery in Northern Ireland. They have worked on hundreds of community-engaged photography projects with individuals and groups in Belfast and across Northern Ireland.
https://www.belfastexposed.org/community-work/
Chiapas Photography Project, Mexico
The Chiapas Photography Project (CPP) is an indigenous photography program formed in 1992. CPP provides indigenous Maya peoples in Chiapas, Mexico with opportunities for cultural and artistic self-expression through photography, running workshops and an archive.
Colectivo Miradas, Colombia
Colectivo Miradas is a collective of photographers formed in 2021 by former guerrillas and community photographers from all over Colombia who have found in photography a tool for reincorporation, reparation, and reconciliation.
https://www.instagram.com/colectivomiradas/
https://www.youtube.com/@colectivomiradas1704
Everyday Peace Indicators, Colombia
Everyday Peace Indicators (EPI) is a peacebuilding organization that works with communities to generate their own indicators of peace. In Colombia, they integrated photovoice with their participatory indicators methods to promote community-level dialogue and make everyday peace visible.
https://www.everydaypeaceindicators.org/
Fairey, Tiffany, Edwin Alfredo Cubillos Rodriguez, and Manuela Muñoz. (2023) ‘Photography and Everyday Peacebuilding. Examining the Impact of Photographing Everyday Peace in Colombia.’ Peacebuilding. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21647259.2023.2184099
Exchanging Perceptions, Northern Ireland
Exchanging Perception is participatory photography dialogue project working with communities living on either side of one of Belfast’s peace walls that mark the boundaries between predominantly Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods.
https://www.belfastinterfaceproject.org/inner-east-outer-west-project
Feminist Memory Project, Nepal
The Feminist Memory Project (FMP) was conceived in 2018 by Nepal Picture Library (NPL) as archival campaign to create a permanent photo archive of women’s and feminist movements in Nepal.
https://www.nepalpicturelibrary.org/
Gurung Kakshapati, N., & Hussey-Smith, K. (2019). An Archival Dialogue: The Nepal Picture Library’s Feminist Memory Project. Photography & Culture, 12(3), 383–392
Fotosynthesis, worlwide
Fotosynthesis is a social entreprise based in the United Kingdom and in Spain but working internationally founded in 2009. They specialise in participatory photography, photovoice, community film and ethical photography & audiovidual production. They use images and sound to dialogue, heal, communicate, advocate, give visibility, educate, promote participation, creativity and empathy, foster peace and indiviual and collective change.
https://www.fotosynthesiscommunity.org/
Inside Out, various countries
Inside Out is a global participatory art project created by the French photographer JR in 2011 that allows community groups to share their stories by displaying large-scale black and white portraits in public spaces.
Inisde Out is JR. Inside Out. (2017). Rizzoli International Publications
https://www.insideoutproject.net/en/
Interfaith Photovoice, various countries
Interfaith Photovoice brings together people of different faiths and beliefs to develop understanding and empathy through conversations about photographs they have taken using photovoice methodology in the US and internationally.
https://interfaithphotovoice.org/
Roman R. Williams, Catherine Holtmann, & William L. Sachs, Sacred Snaps: Photovoice for Interfaith Engagement (Routledge, 2024).
Lenses of Conflict and Peace, Kenya
Lenses of Conflict and Peace was a participatory photography project led by Valentina Baú
in 2014 that sought to open up dialogue between the youth and to create an understanding between (former) enemy groups in the Rift Valley of Kenya.
Baú, V. (2022) Using Participatory Photography for Peace. A short guide for practitioners.
Baú, V. (2015) Participatory Photography for Peace. Using images to open up dialogue after violence, Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, Vol.10, No.3, pp.74-88. DOI: 10.1080/15423166.2015.1050798
MIR, Bosnia and Herzegovina
MIR is an annual youth culture magazine published by the Post Conflict Research Centre (PCRC), a Bosnian peacebuilding organisation. PCRC harnesses creative visual and multi-media to foster a culture of peace and co-existence in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Fairey, Tiffany. (2023) ‘Peace Is Possible: The Role of Strategic Narratives in Peacebuilding’. Media, War & Conflict https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352231160360
Odyssey, USA
Odyssey is a project, started in 2018 by photographer Brendan Bannon, that uses photography as a tool to help returning USA combat veterans reintegrate back to civilian life.
(2020) Odyssey. Warriors Come Home | Combat Veterans Photograph Life After War. CEPA Gallery
https://www.mostimportantpicture.org/odyssey
Open Shutters, Iraq
Open Shutters Iraq was a participatory photography project, led by photographer Eugenie Dolberg, that brought together a group of Iraqi women in Syria to tell their stories.
Dolberg, Eugenie (2010) Open Shutters Iraq. Trolley Books
Our Feelings Took The Pictures: Open Shutters Iraq. 2008. (Film) Dir.Maysoon Pachachi
Papua Tells Stories, West Papua/Indonesia
Papua Tells Stories is project run by the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM) and Peace Brigades International in 2022, that brought 15 Papuan youths of indigenous and non-indigenous backgrounds together to share perspectives and to build inter-group solidarity.
https://www.instagram.com/proyekpapuabercerita/
https://elsam.or.id/buku/papua-bercerita
Picturing Reparation, Central African Republic
Picturing Reparation was a photovoice project run in 2023 with female survivors of conflict related sexual violence supported by the Trust Fund for Victims.
https://www.voicesthatcount.net/
https://trustfundforvictims.org/en/home
Possible Landscapes, Cyprus
Possible Landscapes was an experimental participatory peacebuildling project using Instagram that invited Cypriots to submit their photos to create a shared horizon of the divided island.
https://www.instagram.com/possiblelandscapes/
Rohingyatographer, Bangladesh
Rohingyatographer is collective of Rohingya refugee photographers living in refugee campaign Cox Bazar, Bangladesh. They publish a biannual magazine, engage in exhibitions and projects and run photo workshops as a means to develop skills, to keep their culture and history alive and to connect with outsiders.
https://www.rohingyatographer.org/
Shooting Cameras for Peace, Colombia
Disparando Cámeras para la Paz (DCP), or Shooting Cameras for Peace, is a project that taught analogue photography to young people living in a barrio outside Bogotá.
Fattal, A.L. (2020) Shooting Cameras for Peace. Youth, Photography, and the Colombian Armed Conflict. Peabody Museum Press
Side by Side, Palestine / Israel
Side by Side was a photographic dialogue project led by PhotoVoice that brought together Palestinian and Israeli teenagers from across Israel and the West Bank in 2007.
https://photovoice.org/sidebyside/
Sirkhane Darkroom, Turkey
Sirkhane Darkroom is a mobile photography darkroom project working with children in south-eastern Turkey that aims to provide a creative space and help Syrian and Iraqi Kurdish refugee children integrate with Turkish children.
https://www.instagram.com/sirkhanedarkroom/
Still Doing Life, USA
Still Doing Life is a photographic project led by Howard Zehr who took portraits and conducted interviews with people serving life sentences in Pennsylvania in the 1990s and again 25 years later.
Zehr, H., (2002). The Little Book of Restorative Justice. Good Books
Zehr, H., Toews, B., (2022). Still Doing Life: 22 Lifers 25 Years Later. The New Press
Zehr, H. (2005) The Little Book of Contemplative Photography. Good Books
Zehr, H., (2001). Transcending: Reflections Of Crime Victims. Good Books
TAFOS, Peru
Talleres de Fotografia Social (TAFOS) was a pioneering project in Peru that ran from 1986-98 and worked with over 270 community photographers across the country who used photography a tool to support non-violent resistance and community organisation in the midst of the conflict.
https://www.instagram.com/tafospucp/?hl=en
https://facultad.pucp.edu.pe/comunicaciones/tafos/
Tejiendo Vidas, Fotosynthesis, Spain & Colombia
Tejiendo Vidas is an online participatory and therapeutic photography project that supported Colombian conflict victims living in Spain during COVID 19 led by Fotosynthesis.
https://www.fotosynthesiscommunity.org/tejiendo-vidas/
https://www.unidadvictimas.gov.co/
The Home Stay Exhibitions, Rwanda
The Home Stay Exhibitions is a photography and visual storytelling project with young people in Rwanda where young people exhibit their photo projects in their homes, inviting friends and neighbours to discuss the issues depicted in their images.
https://www.kigaliphotocenter.org/
Fairey, T. (2024) ‘The Home Stay Exhibitions: the home and the image as hyperlocal sites of peace-building.’, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding
Voices and images Mayan Ixil women of Chajul, Guatemala
Voices & Images was a feminist photovoice project with Mayan Ixil women of Chajul, Guatemala who were affected by the internal conflict in the country.
Lykes, M.B (2010). Silence(ing), voice(s) and gross violations of human rights: constituting and performing subjectivities through PhotoPAR. Visual Studies 25, 238–254
Lykes, M.B., Blanche, M.T., Hamber, B. (2003) Narrating survival and change in Guatemala and South Africa: the politics of representation and a liberatory community psychologyAmerican Journal of Community Psychology 31, 79–90
Lykes, M.B. (2000) Voices and images:Mayan Ixil women of Chajul. Guatemala: Magna Terra: Association of Mayan Ixil Women.
Witness Objects, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Witness Objects was a pinhole photography project, led by Luke Watson working with Bosnian students, that transformed objects from the siege of Sarajevo in the collection of the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina into pin hole cameras.