Photography workshops in a Degase Socio-Educational Unit

The “Right to Health in the Socio-Educational System” research project, a partnership between the Maria and João Aleixo Institute and the British universities of Stirling, Strathclyde and Dundee, included a series of photography workshops conducted by photographers Bira Carvalho (in memoriam) and Davi Marcos, from agency Imagens do Povo, which took place in a unit of the Rio de Janeiro State socio-educational system throughout 2019.

The project aimed at facilitating new ways to hear what young people deprived of freedom had to say, through a workshop proposing photographic experiences based on solidarity and identity.

The workshop was designed and implemented for adolescents to use photography as a tool to recognize their perceptions of themselves, deprivation of freedom institutions, and health conditions during their period in them.

In reference to their favelas and peripheries of origin, adolescents had a space for sensitive expression and reflection created for them. Photographic records of these territories, where they came from and coexisted with others, made returning to them possible from an affective standpoint.

Eleven young people who participated in the workshops shared social and dynamic practices of community living, such as practicing group sports, eating together, circulating in the territory (through virtual maps and photos), and promoting self-care and solidarity.

Through these processes, they revealed their talent, sensibilities, and creative and intellectual capabilities in the workshops.

This process enabled the construction of affective dialogue and exchanges about structural challenges and problems of this space of deprivation of freedom for young people. Above all, they strengthened a caring relationship of coexistence among young people.