PEACEBUILDING & THERAPEUTIC

Photography can be used a tool for integration, as a way to express ourselves and reflect collectively about what affects us. Photography can bring us together to be stronger

— Aldair, Colombia

A camera can allow people who can not express their feelings verbally to do so creatively through an image. It can allow the inner and outer emotional and spiritual journey of an individual or of a group within a community.

When you explore your memories, your feelings, and emotions, or your local area through the lens of a camera, your eyes and mind magically open and discover what was hidden just inside you or in front of you. You can suddenly connect to your neighborhood, you observe it as an outsider while being an insider, you can witness the little changes that have taken place in your daily life.

Without reconciliation and dialogue, there can’t be no peace. Images open the hidden stories, foster dialogue and profound and sincere conversations instantly and in a responsible and respectful manner.

In a post-conflict zone or displaced or conflicted communities, people often focus their attention on what is not right, what has not changed, what had not improved, generating a culture of despair. 

We have delivered projects with the Colombian diaspora in Europe (International Catalan Institute of Peace and Mujer Diaspora) and in Northern Ireland with Beyond Skin and we are open to new ideas and areas of work.

Imagine Peace Exhibition in Belfast - Ingrid Guyon & Antonio Amador

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Peace and photography by Ingrid Guyon

TEJIENDO VIDAS

Check our recent online project working with a therapist, the body, and photography to transform stories of war into stories of hope and resilience with Colombians victims of the armed conflict living in Catalonia, Spain. An inspiring project funded by Unidad de Victimas de Colombia and organized by the Colombian Consulate in Barcelona, that has left footprints in all our hearts.

COLOMBIA

Being photographed gave me a platform to share internal feelings that I previously felt were unimportant. It began a process of self-analysis within me that continues to this day.

— Camila

Cameras can be used in my community to bring two groups who refuse to be in the same room together to discuss and explore their issues through a camera or to communicate from a distance until they are ready to meet and sit down in the same room. 

NORTHERN IRELAND

We have been working collaboratively with Beyond Skin and Antonio Amador in Northern Ireland on different projects using creative image-making, participatory and collaborative photography, and public exhibitions as tools for dialogue, community cohesion, disrupting, questioning, having fun, and creating in with Jean Paul II Youth Club and Belfast Exposed with Imagine Peace in Belfast, FUTyoURES project with Colombia, Grow Wild, Cookstown Holy Trinity College, Conversation Festival in Mount Stewart and Sowing of Life.

Read Ingrid Guyon’s blog about her first visit to Northern Ireland here. And Antonio Amador here

“I really enjoy the creative space you created and the icebreakers. I have made more friends in 2 hours of your workshop than in the 3 days of the conference and even though I was the only non-English speaker in my group, we could easily communicate.’ Zack Tilton