International Day for Sharing Life Stories

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January 1, 2008
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Sharing Stories:

How To Organize A Photo Circle

Photo circles use the age-old tradition of storytelling as a way to bring people together and build relationships, using particular photographs as a prompt. The goal of organizing a photo circle is to provide a place where people from all backgrounds can come together and share their photographs and personal, reflective stories as well as explore a range of issues and life experiences.

• Ask each participant in advance to bring an especially treasured family photo to the session.

• As participants arrive, invite them to eat refreshments, tell them where the bathroom is located, and any other logistical issues that folks should know about.

• In addition, ask them to do one of the following exercises and then post the photo on the wall so that the collection of photos resemble an art exhibit.

a. Write down three key words that relate to the photo. These could be nouns of adjectives relating to who or what is in the picture.

b. Write an entire paragraph describing the photo, using the three sentences and adding/revising them as necessary

• Gather participants around a table if possible and welcome your participants to the photo circle. Briefly explain the purpose of the event and that it is one of many events happening worldwide to celebrate the International Day for Sharing Life Stories.

• Have participants briefly introduce themselves to the group.

• Explain and develop “ground rules” for the photo circle – that is, a group of agreements that the group makes on how the photo circle will operate.

• Establish a time limit for each story. Although the time limit is certainly adjustable depending to how many participants one has, we typically recommend spending ten to twenty minutes on each participant’s story, including time for feedback. Photo circles typically take no more than 2 hours.

• Potentially designate a “timekeeper” to make sure the time guidelines are being followed and to offer participants “two minute warnings” and “30 seconds warnings” for when their time is coming to a close. Encourage folks with additional questions and comments to approach the storyteller following the Photo Circle.• Visit each photograph as a group and have the corresponding participant explain the photograph’s significance and the story that goes along with it.

• Ask participants for their feedback on the photo circle process. What did they enjoy about it? What, if anything, did they find frustrating? In what ways do they think the Story Circle process or storytelling in general could be better used in society?

• Collect contact information for participants and thank them for their participation.

PLANNING YOUR PHOTO CIRCLE

Below you will find several suggestions for how to plan and organize a photo circle and for follow-up activities.

• Determine who you want to invite to your photo circle. Do you want to partner with another organization? If so, how will you determine who is invited or participates? Do you want to limit the number of participants, require an RSVP, or have an open invitation to the public?

In order to provide ample time for each participant, we usually find it best to limit photo circles to no more than 10 people, but if you anticipate that your number of participants will exceed this, you can always plan on dividing the larger group into small circles.

• Find a space for your event. Make sure that is easily accessible to your participants and provides your photo circle with the level of privacy and intimacy you want. Is there ample wall space to hang participant’s photographs? If you anticipate having multiple circles, can your venue accomodate this? Does it have multiple rooms?

• Create a welcoming environment. Make sure the seating is comfortable and arranged effectively. Arrange for snacks and drinks for before and after the Story Circle. Make sure the room is at a comfortable temperature.

• Determine the time of your event. What times generally work best for your participant group? Does that time work with the venue?

• Do you want to partner with an outside group, such as a local radio station or other media organization, to document the photo circle? Do you or your organization want to take photographs of the event for your own archives?

• If your event is open to the public, how do you want to publicize the event? If you are interested in generating press coverage for your event, craft a press release for the event and send it to your local media outlets at least two weeks before the event and a follow-up reminder two days before the event.

• Request that all participants arrive with one photograph that holds a special significance to them. Remind participants of this one day before the event.

• Purchase and/or prepare materials needed to post photographs on the wall (without damaging them) as well as paper for participants to write their photograph’s caption.

• Identify somebody you can count on for encouraging participation and helping keep people with their allotted time.

• Create a welcoming environment. Make sure the seating is comfortable and arranged effectively. Arrange for snacks and drinks for before and after the photo circle. Make sure the room is at a comfortable temperature and that background noise has been limited.

Follow-up Activities

• Send thank yous to event participants, especially facilitators, the venue and any other people who helped the event happen.

• Send photos and a description of how your event went to CDS (laura@storycenter.org) so we can include them on our International Day web site and archives.

• Consider hosting another storytelling event in your community.

ACTIVITY KITS

HOST ORGANIZATIONS

* Center for Digital Storytelling

* Museu da Pessoa

NAVIGATION