PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP , SESSION OUTLINE

Duration: Approximately 2 hours
Format: Facilitated group session
Maximum Group Size: 8–10 participants

Part One: Welcome and Orientation (20 minutes)

• Introductions: researcher and participants (first names, preferred pronouns if offered)
• Review of the research purpose in plain language: this study is about what international students see when they look at their university, and the photographs are how they show me
• Rolling consent reminder: participants confirm they wish to proceed; withdrawal procedures reviewed
• Overview of the two-week photography period and subsequent sessions

Part Two: Technical Skills (30 minutes)

Participants explored basic smartphone photography techniques, with an emphasis on documentary rather than aesthetic photography. Topics included:

• Framing and composition: what to include in the frame and why
• Lighting in indoor institutional spaces (corridors, classrooms, offices)
• Capturing text, signage, and institutional language as documentary subjects
• Photographing absence: what the frame excludes can be as analytically significant as what it includes
• Practical exercise: participants photographed a single campus object and discussed what they chose and why

Part Three: Ethical Guidelines (25 minutes)

Ethical photography in shared institutional spaces requires active judgment rather than rule-following. The session covered:

• Photographing people: participants were advised that photographing identifiable individuals required informal consent from the person being photographed, with the exception of crowds or public events where individuals are incidental to the scene
• Photographing institutional spaces: classrooms, corridors, and public-facing institutional environments are generally documentary subjects; private offices, residential spaces, and administrative back-of-house areas require additional care
• Visual sovereignty reminder: participants own their photographs and may withdraw any image at any time
• Discussion of the ethics of representation: whose story does this photograph tell, and how might different viewers read it?

Part Four: Conceptual Framing (30 minutes)

This section introduced the conceptual questions the photography was designed to explore, without pre-loading the answers:

• What does belonging look like on a university campus? What are its markers, its textures, its spatial expressions?
• What does exclusion look like? Where does the institution say one thing and do another?
• What do the objects, spaces, and signs of campus life tell you about who this institution was built for?
• What would you want someone outside your situation to see, if they could see your university through your eyes?

A brief discussion followed, inviting participants to share initial observations and questions. The researcher offered the Photography Prompt Card (Appendix F) as a reference document for the two-week period.

Part Five: Questions and Preparation (15 minutes)

• Open question period: any questions about the photography period, the research, or the process
• Logistics: photography period dates confirmed, group session dates confirmed
• Researcher contact information shared for questions arising during the photography period
• Photography Prompt Cards distributed