Popular Education in Revolutionary Times: Reflecting on Nicaragua's Popular Education Program in the 1980s

3. Social Relationship

I came into this collaborative environment having completed a Master’s in Documentary media, which included several technical production courses and provided me with significant hands on experience working in photography and videography. Right away the members recognized this ability and saw this as something I could contribute to the collective. In addition, through my experiences in travelling and living in different countries, I developed an openness to entering new situations with a flexible mindset and trying to adapt myself to the local norms and expectations rather than impose my own ways of working and relating to others. This allowed me to build stronger relationships with the other members as I didn’t approach them as an already knowledgeable “expert”, but rather as someone willing to help and learn wherever I could. However, during my work with the Ninjas there were a few people who came and weren’t able to adapt to the collaborative process. They weren’t open to letting others edit their images, holding fast to the idea that photography is an individual act and that the photographer has ownership of the photos, and should alone be able to determine how they are edited and published.

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