Intercultural Communication Institute

38 | Using Photography in Intercultural Teaching and Training

Photographs serve as a window, a mirror, and a shaper of perceptions—and misperceptions—of cultures and intercultural relations. And yet our understanding of the visual and our ability to use photographs in our work lag far behind our ability with words. This workshop offers practical guidance in using photography effectively in teaching and training, and in developing a critical eye in viewing photographic images.

Designed for
Teachers, trainers, and researchers who appreciate the potential of photography in discovery and presentation and who wish to integrate image with words. (Previous experience in photography is not required.) Those who value learning outside the lecture room, who learn by doing, by critique, and through visual models will find this a rewarding workshop.

Learn new ways to “read” cultural and intercultural photographs with a more critical eye
Acquire a variety of exercises designed to increase a critical awareness in others
Recognize the impact of photography as it affects intercultural relations today and its increasing impact in a digital era
Explore the role of photographs in each person’s visual memory and outlook on intercultural relations and cultural identity
Increase confidence and competence in taking and making pictures and in ways of using photographs in teaching and training presentations, including PowerPoint and other computer-aided means, easily created poster formats, and other options that have recently become available
Design plans to use photography in presentations in classes and training programs

Learning Activities

Participation in a “crash course” in documentary and ethnographic photography, with critiques and guidance in making more effective photographs for teaching and training
Practice in using sixteen elements of seeing, composition, and design
Detailed hands-on guidance in the taking, selecting, and editing of pictures
Creation of an original photographic essay—people, places, process—in image and caption

Faculty: John Condon and Miguel Gandert

Dr. John Condon, part of SIIC since its founding, is a professor emeritus of communication at the University of New Mexico, and holds a lifetime title of Regents’ Professor, the university’s highest honor. He has published more than two dozen books, with translations in seven languages. Jack has lived and worked for half his professional life outside of the U.S., and values experience outside the library and classroom. Last year he initiated the Cultural Confluence Press, dedicated to share “good ideas with a modesty of words.” Jack lives in rural New Mexico with his faithful dog, Prozac.

Miguel Gandert is a fine art and documentary photographer and a professor of communication and journalism at the University of New Mexico, where he and John Condon have regularly taught the advanced graduate seminar in intercultural communication. Miguel’s photographs have been shown in galleries and museums throughout the world and are in numerous public collections, including the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe. Miguel also teaches for the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress and at institutes in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. His many publications include the award-winning Nuevo México Profundo and the recently published Hermanitos Comanchitos: Indo-Hispano Rituals of Captivity and Redemption.