Reflective Report: “A Diverse Language” – 

Posted on 8th July 2025 by Kalpesh Lathigra

IP Unit: Reflective Report

Inclusive Pedagogy in Photography Education

Introduction

I am an artist, photographer and educator, these roles I play are not mutually exclusive. I am reminded of the Venn diagram from my secondary school education and that of my interview to join the university. I spoke of the need to not “silo” the photography pathways and I feel this applies to pedagogical practices to foster inclusivity, community and address the challenges faced by students.

Photography is often described as a universal language, but this framing risks flattening the political and cultural histories embedded within the image. The photographic canon particularly within Western art education, continues to marginalise non-Western voices, aesthetics, and philosophies. In my role as an arts educator within a postgraduate photography programme, I have witnessed students arrive with a deeply internalised belief in Western superiority in photography who measure themselves against Euro-American benchmarks while remaining either unaware of alternative visual traditions or choose what is seen as the model route to success in a competitive industry.

This reflective report outlines the rationale, execution, and outcomes of an interventionist workshop titled “A Diverse Language.” It is rooted in an inclusive and decolonial pedagogy, the workshop seeks to redress the imbalance of references and create cross-cultural, collaborative environments that challenge students to see and think differently. Drawing from contemporary theory, global photographic practices, and embodied exercises, this report positions inclusive learning as a pedagogical, aesthetic, and political imperative.

Context and Problem Identification

The MA Photography cohort I work with is diverse in nationality and cultural background, yet the classroom discussions remain tethered to a Western frame of reference especially within Commercial photography. Contemporary photographers and artists such Cindy Sherman, Annie Leibovitz, Alec Soth, Nick Knight, Tim Walker and Wolfgang Tillmans dominate conversations, while artists from India, Bangladesh, Morocco, China, Ghana, Cameroon, Mali or Nigeria are seldom mentioned. The visual language absorbed and reproduced by students is often rooted in formalist, Eurocentric conventions of “good photography.” Even when photographers of colour are mentioned they fit what is seen as palatable to the western gaze and stories that only beautify rather than have a deeper conversation, keeping the status quo of the good photograph.There is the compounded affect of industry that promotes the ideas of diversity but gatekeepers and cliques of practitioners develop the model of the “closed shop” only enabling those who fit their criteria. We can see this in the norms of social media practices on platforms such as Instagram where those in the exclusive club follow each other and continue to keep the doors closed and the ceilings high at the same time are performative in their actions for meaningful change.

Students also gravitate toward their own cultural and linguistic groups, further limiting exchange. Rather than engaging with the unfamiliar, there is a tendency to stay within the safe boundaries of known experience and reference. This insularity, both aesthetic and social, urgently calls for an intervention that would unsettle the hierarchical gaze and promote inclusive learning as well promote dialogue and engage in conversations outside of the course.

Pedagogical Approach

The workshop draws from Bell Hooks’ theory of education as “the practice of freedom” and Paulo Freire’s concept of co-created knowledge through dialogue. It is also informed by Ariella Azoulay’s notion of photography as a civic encounter (2018) where meaning and ethics emerge relationally rather than authorially. These philosophies are aligned with Hong (2025), who critiques how aesthetic schemas such as the reclining female nude persist in modern Chinese photography under colonial influence, highlighting how the legacy of Western aesthetics operates even within non-Western contexts.

To dismantle these entangled legacies, the workshop employs a participatory, performative and decolonial pedagogy. Students are not just taught about diversity; they are made to experience it through embodied, collaborative practice. In Bhagat, D. and O’Neill, P. (2011), I summarise that any tangible change in inclusive practice requires a shift within pedogogy, one that can recognise and respond to the diversity within photography across the world. The notion that by enabling entry to students is not a measure of or equate to a supportive or equitable learning environment.

This intervention I hope can address this and provide a safe space where students can collaborate, exchange knowledge, gain self-confidence and importantly bring new voices to the fore and celebrate those that have been sidelined.

Workshop Design: “A Diverse Language”

The workshop is structured into five distinct yet interlinked stages:

1. Framing the Issue:

Students are introduced to the workshop through a discussion that critically unpacks the idea of photography as a neutral or universal language. We view resources such as Renee Mussai’s “Black Portraiture” (YouTube, 2022), alongside excerpts from A Window Suddenly Opens, a groundbreaking exhibition on Chinese photography (Chiu & Johnson, 2023). These discussions help reframe photography not as a tool of mastery, but as a site of resistance, memory, and multiplicity. We incorporate readings from Moumni (2024) on fashion photography in postcolonial Morocco, who argues for the reconstruction of identity through the lens and critiques the objectifying gaze embedded in mainstream fashion narratives.

2. Cross-Cultural Buddy System:

Students are paired across gender, nationality, and MA pathways into “buddies.” Each pair is tasked with sharing a deeply personal insight something meaningful, possibly hidden from their lives. This may begin as a voice message, WhatsApp text, or even a drawing. The task is not only to reveal, but to listen, interpret, and carry someone else’s story into visual form.

This act echoes Vygotsky’s social constructivist model, where knowledge is created through interaction. Here, the act of photographing becomes relational rather than representational.

3. The Disruption Task:

Each group receives 10 sheets of Polaroid instant film and a camera. Their brief: create photographs that reflect or reinterpret their buddy’s insight, while deliberately challenging dominant aesthetic conventions. The goal is to produce images that feel “boring,” “mundane,” or “formally wrong” in order to interrogate what students unconsciously consider “good photography.”

As Hong (2025) suggests, unlearning aesthetic expectations is a first step toward uncovering the colonial scaffolding beneath photographic traditions.

Students use every day spaces classrooms, stairwells, the canteen to stage their images. The intention is to elevate the ordinary, to look beyond spectacle, and to find poetic potential in the overlooked.

4. Nonlinear Exhibition:

After developing the Polaroids, students are required to give their photographs to another group. The receiving group must curate a spontaneous wall installation using only unfamiliar images. This relinquishing of authorship challenges individualistic models of creativity and encourages a more fluid, interpretive engagement with the image.

The temporary exhibition resists chronology, narrative coherence, and ownership. It is a living archive of misinterpretation, collaboration, and shared meaning.

5. Reflection and Critique:

In a closing roundtable, each group reflects on what they thought the images they exhibited meant, and the original makers reveal their intentions. This leads to a rich discussion about visual misrecognition, positionality, and how meaning can shift in transit.

Inclusive Learning Through Global References

Central to the success of the workshop is the incorporation of global and non-Western references, which helped students break out of the narrow confines of the Euro-American canon. Students engaged with:

  • African photographers such as Zanele Muholi , James Barnor, Lindokhule Sobekwa, Malick Sidibé whose work blends identity, community, and resistance.
  • African American Photographers such as Zora Murff , Deana Lawson, Widen Cadet, Rahim Fortune
  • Indian photographers like Dayanita Singh ,Gauri Gill , Sohrab Hura, who offer nuanced readings of personal and political histories through portraiture and architectural space.
  • Asian practitioners including Hiroshi Sugimoto , Daido Moriyama ,Ren Hang , Kathy Ann Lim whose practices disrupt temporality and formal conventions.
  • Tamvi Mishra’s curatorial work in India and Southeast Asia, and Veerangana Solanki’s efforts to challenge patriarchal framing in art and image-making.

This diverse spectrum of work creates a new visual vocabulary for students. 

Reflections on Impact

The workshop I hope can have profound effects on both the classroom atmosphere and individual student practice. I want students to be “freed” from the pressure to conform to dominant visual styles and work with someone outside their cultural or language group before.

By reframing photography as a collaborative, interpretive, and political act, students began to recognise their own complicity in reproducing hegemonic standards and their power to subvert them.

The images produced, though technically imperfect, can be deeply affecting. A still life of leftover rice on a canteen table, a unused computer, the pencil on a ledge, a disruptive portrait carry more weight than a well-lit studio photograph because of the story behind it. The formal “failure” became a narrative success.

Challenges and Next Steps

It is important note that my positionality as a South Asian male who has been born in the United Kingdom. My own photographic education has undoubtedly been influenced by the dominant culture of the west which brings bias. It is the water I have drunk that has both nourished and diminished me in part.

My experience as a professional photographer has led me to prioritize a path that has conformed to the narratives in play in the industry. The glass ceilings and socio-economic consequences have their part in these decisions.

It is vital that I as an educator and participant in the wider industry make more interventions to not only highlight but to make meaningful change by leading by example not only to the students but within the institution of education and my colleagues.

Some students can struggle with the ambiguity of the brief. Others may find the personal-sharing aspect emotionally challenging. These experiences highlight the need for emotional scaffolding in pedagogical design future iterations of the workshop will include content warnings, support prompts, and opt-out alternatives.

Additionally, the current assessment model focused on individual portfolios and critical writing does not easily accommodate collective, process-driven outcomes. Moving forward, I plan to introduce alternative forms of assessment that reward collaboration, interpretation, and critical self-reflection. I have run a basic version of this workshop and my plan now is to incorporate this workshop moving forward in the new academic year consulting with my colleagues on the best way forward in the first term where I feel the impact can at its most beneficial.

Conclusion

“A Diverse Language” is more than a workshop; it is an evolving intervention into the structures of knowledge, authorship, and aesthetic power within photography education. By using global references, fostering intercultural collaboration, and embracing disruption, the workshop cultivates a pedagogy that is both inclusive and radical.

Photography is not just about what we see, but about how and with whom we choose to look. By unsettling the dominant gaze, we can begin to build new visual languages that are as plural, porous, and poetic as the communities we serve.

References

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