Our learners and I, listened and watched in amazement as Mr. Luswata Philip and his team, our trainers of our CPAR Youth Media Training, made the art of behavioral change communication by photography look simple.

Yes, our learners had had a practical session in photography on the streets of Lira City and the photos that they had taken were the topic of conversation. Each learner was asked to present a self-selected set of five photos of the ones they each had shot.

“This is a well constructed picture,” said Mr. Luswata. And I could see our media change agent in training who took the photo taken a little by surprise, for the latter had just shortly explained his photo differently.

The learner’s explanation was valid too, but from the perspective of the masters, our expert trainers, the photo better told an “alternative story.” For example, An important lesson, for example, was that it gave us a good example of a photo taken by our own learner, with the use of leading lines.  

“Leading lines is a photography composition technique that uses natural or man-made lines within an image to guide the viewer’s eye to the main subject.”

CLICK HERE to learn more about lessons learned on photography during our CPAR Youth Media Training.

And so, even though it was a fluke, so to speak, Kitmai Adbdulkarim got his flowers for exemplifying the leading lines technique in his photo, as profiled in this post.

For those politically alert, among the places our eye was guided, perhaps unintentionally, was the “Battle for Lira City Woman MP: Betty Among Vs Dr, Ruth Aceng.”

The lesson intended, however, was to effectively, demonstrate to our learners how good photography skills and or photos can be used as a tool to inspire behavioral change, by guiding the eyes of the beholder to an issue, in a way that they cannot miss it.

We are grateful to the kin of the late Dr. Paul Hargrave for the legacy grant via Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief, without which we would not be able to positively impact the lives of youth from disadvantaged backgrounds of greater northern Uganda. CLICK HERE to learn more.