Tools and methods

Photomapping with children and youth

When it is useful

These one-day activities for school children and young people focus on the visual discovery of their neighbourhood. During the workshop, students from different classes work together to find secret places, patterns, beautiful and hideous spaces in the neighbourhood. There, they take photos, which make up a dossier that can form an exhibition – in Lindholm, the children’s work was presented in the local museum. This kind of mapping provides an immediate insight into the children’s perspective of the relationship with urban space. What do they notice, which places do they use most? Such intense work gives the participants a sense of mission and teamwork and, importantly, supports their voice in deciding the future of the neighbourhood.

Step by step instruction

Approach schools in the neighbourhood with a proposal – try to involve art, history, geography teachers... and others who might be interested.
Make sure that everyone has a camera or a phone to take pictures with. Especially in poorer neighbourhoods, it is advisable to borrow such equipment for the workshop to avoid divisions in the group.
Divide the participants into groups or pairs and ask them to go for a walk in the neighbourhood (depending on the age of the participants, you will have to provide a certain number of accompanying persons).
During the walk, each participant should find and photograph: • His or her secret place • Patterns and textures typical for this space • Meeting places • Beautiful places • Hideous/ugly places
Encourage groups to discuss and justify their choices – record these comments.
After the walk, compare the collected material and look for repeating places or similar patterns together.
Organise the visual material after the workshop – it will be useful as a basis for your mapping of the neighbourhood and can form an exhibition to be presented in the school, local centre or public space.

Downloadable materials

UCP_Guldborgsund_mapping-1