Participants interpret core concepts through photography

In 2011, The Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change introduced an interlaced activity: we mixed photography and statistics to create an informal but striking photo contest.

The theoretical lectures given throughout the course by international faculty and visiting scholars, were featured in an activity that involved applying previously discussed ideas such as framing (what is included or left out), interpretation, captioning and contextualisation; a bigger impact was achieved when overlapping with shocking numbers on a specific issue.

With topics like “Diversity”, “Human presence in nature”, “Freedom” and “Global Media Literacy”, participants (and some faculty members) had a few days in between each theme to come up with their own interpretation. Alongside their images and related to each category, they submitted one stat per person (Eg: for “Human presence in nature” the statistic topic was “Climate change”).

The International Labour Organization has estimated that approximately 246 million children between 5 and 17 years old work. From those, 179 million are trapped in subhuman labour conditions around the world. (Photo: 1st place on Freedom, Pablo Cavia - Mexico).

The winners, finalists and other people with interesting entries, explained what they intended to express with their submission. Once the participants had spoken, the photographer who conducted this activity elaborated on the visuals with regards to the elements included in the shot and shared other possible interpretations when analysing further. Through the course of the contest, participants refined their reading skills by noticing the layers hidden in images and also put into practice their visual expression ability.

The United States population discards each year 16,000,000,000 diapers, 1,600,000,000 pens, 2,000,000,000 razor blades, 220,000,000 car tires, and enough aluminium to rebuild the US commercial air fleet 4 times over. (Photo: 1st place on Human presence in Nature, Melanie Leung – Hong Kong).

Since The Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change gathers people from all continents, another aim for this project was to use specific examples developed on site by fellows, that showed how people from diverse cultures interpret concepts differently; to evidence the varying approaches we all have according to our background and relationship with these concepts in our home country, and how to reach a better understanding of each other.

(Photo: 1st place on Diversity, Martina Kinčešová – Slovakia).

However, this activity did not intend to become only a practical tool, but to reach beyond: it was also meant to raise awareness of our personal impact on other people’s lives and the natural world depending on how we consume both products and media, and as a first step to becoming responsible, active Global Citizens.