In April 2022, a group of young people met at the Marikana Youth Development Organisation to take part in a workshop on Geoethics and photography, run by the Geoethics research team.

The three-day workshop opened with a session that explored ideas about Earth and Geoethics. Participants developed Geoethical collages with clippings from the day’s newspaper and presented their ideas to the group. Key thoughts emerged, including ideas around balance, health, infrastructure and activism.

This was followed by an afternoon discussion about photography, its role in participants’ lives and the power of photography to generate change. Through discussions, photographs were understood to be connected to memories, history-making and motivation. These key themes – of marking a present and motivating both others and future selves – were aptly tied together by one participant, who reiterated that photographs were “evidence.” Participants were asked to take their own photographs over the coming days, in preparation for discussion and potential exhibition.

On the second day of the workshop, participants analysed their own photographs in groups, drawing out key themes from one another’s work. Important topics emerged around challenges facing their communities, including unemployment, waste disposal, broken promises, a sense of struggle and the need for community cohesion. From these discussions, participants developed a Geoethical story that connected the photographs. They centred broken promises, communication and community cohesion as cornerstones of their story.

On the final day of the workshop, participants developed their own photography collages, using the photographs they had taken during the previous days. The date of the installation coincided with the day after South Africa’s Freedom Day. The newspapers were filled with debates about what this Freedom means and for who, and a number of evocative headlines were used in their displays.

An informal opening took place, with participants inviting adjacent classrooms to view their work. A host of photographs were taken and shared on social media.

As the day unfolded, discussions turned to thinking about how to move forward with the project. A general sentiment emerged that they wanted to continue working together as a group, to make their lives and communities known to the world – putting themselves on the map through their photographic voice. Discussions concluded that a website or digital platform for the project would be an important starting point, through which they could be reached as a group and continue to share their evidence of life in Marikana.

A full report will be made available here soon. Please email for more details.