YouthAction NI – Photography Workshop for Young People

I love working with young people to help inspire them on their photography journey. When Brenda from YouthAction NI contacted me last year to see if I would be interested in working with a group of young people in the Dungannon area on the Amplify Programme, I was happy to oblige.

YouthAction NI are a charity youth organisation covering all of Northern Ireland.  The Amplify Project is funded by the EU PEACE IV Programme and works with young people aged 16-24 who are currently not in education, employment or training. 

The goal of the Amplify project is to inspire 960 young people from diverse backgrounds, to build good relations and take positive actions. Amplify is a youth work partnership between Foróige, Youth Work Ireland, the Northern Ireland Youth Forum and Patrician Youth centre, led by YouthAction NI.

The key themes of the project were personal development, good relations and citizenship.  Brenda advised that some of the young people had expressed an interest in photography and were keen on learning some new skills. Then they would go on to take photos, linked into the project themes, and use them in an exhibition at the end of the project.

Over a 4 week period, I provided on Online Photography Workshops via Zoom to the group. We covered a variety of topics including Visual Storytelling, Composition, Lighting and Photo Editing. Each week, I set a photo challenge for the students to take part in. This helped embed the learning and allowed me give constructive feedback to the young people. They had their own dedicated Facebook group where they could share their work, ask questions and support the other students.

I really enjoyed working with the group and it was so lovely seeing how they grew in confidence during the course. Here are some of the their final images that were included in the exhibition

This year, Brenda invited me back to deliver a one day photography workshop as part of their summer programme with another group of young people. We discussed how to take better photos with your smartphone more creatively. Looking at colour, backgrounds, shooting angles and perspective. Here is an example of how an image can be improved quickly by thinking more about the direction of the light and shooting angle. Both images taken by one of the students on the course.

If you think that your community group, youth club or after schools club could benefit from working with me, feel free to get in touch. I’ve worked with a number of local schools and youth groups, as well as voluntary organisation providing photography courses on a number of topics. Whatever your needs, I’m here to help