Yoga & Participatory Photography - Part 2: A Parents Point Of View.

In part 1 we looked at a recent collaboration with Umbrella Yoga on a project funded by Barnardos working with 50 young people with additional needs - using a combination of Yoga and Participatory Photography. In this 2nd instalment I want to introduce you to another group of people who took part in this project, parents.

Our approach here was slightly different to the young people, the parents hadn’t met each other before and were quite naturally not sure about having some random bloke (me) turn up and take photos so we didnt do that part and instead I joined the group towards the end of their yoga sessions.

I introduced them to some photovoice activities, getting comfortable with the idea that photos are things we can use to connect and share stories through, we also did a treasure hunt activity which gave people chance to experience finding things in their environment to photograph.

At the end of the session I asked if people could over the course of the next week take 3 photographs which represented what a ‘good life’ looks like for them. It’s a question that I love using in participatory photography projects because it’s so open but I recognise that it can also be quite a challenging question to consider so I’m always very mindful of this and I make sure that people are free to choose how or even if they participate.

I think these imagse speak for themselves…. I was absolutely blown away by the responses!! We came back together as a group and I printed out the images so that we could all view them together. A conversation followed which was truly one of the most powerful that I’ve ever had the privilege to be part of! Here’s a few words from some of the parents:

If you’d like to hear more about this project, you can listen to myself and Ellie from Umbrella Yoga HERE as we reflect on our collaboration, our approach and the experience of working alongside all of the amazing people we met too.