DIGITALES
STORYTELLING

09.04.2018 | Our Methods

SocialVisions member Mari Boman writes about the method Digital Storytelling and her experience of the training course “Once upon a Story” which took place in Evora (Portugal) in November 2017.
mari

I am a documentary photographer engaging in community projects and interested in portraying individuals and their stories. Still photography is a great tool for doing so. Often the photographs are accompanied by text to help anchor the meaning. Working with new perspectives for the documentary practice is crucial for any development.

The Digital Storytelling workshop in Evora opened up further possibilities for such development. Documentary photography is today no longer confined to still photographs as many photographers use moving image as well, together with other tools. Mainly because it is adding another layer to the stories told and thus making them more interesting and captivating for wider audiences.

„Today there is an immense need to tell the stories behind refugees and other regular migrants“

Digital Storytelling is a great way of telling a personal story. Today there is an immense need to tell the stories behind refugees and other regular migrants, especially in countries which face many incoming people. My hope is that sharing and spreading personal stories of refugees will reduce xenophobia in the end.

At SocialVisions where I volunteer in planning and running photography/arts workshops for refugee youth I hope to incorporate digital storytelling into future projects. The main goal would be to enable and encourage refugee youth to tell their story, to be heard. To what extent photography and digital storytelling can be combined, and if so in what way, is still under discussion. People have different channels helping them tell their personal story – some like formulating texts, others like a visual language like painting, photography or film. The digital storytelling concept is offering yet another channel that we can work with and thus greatly enriches our ‘tool box’.

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