Photography Workshops

I offer workshops in photography and visual storytelling for children, young people, and adults.

In my workshops, photography becomes a way of exploring the world around us. It is not only about technique or taking the “right” photograph, but about developing your own way of seeing: What do I notice? What do I want to tell? And how can a photograph express something that may be difficult to put into words?

Over the years, I have facilitated photography workshops in a wide range of settings in Denmark, Greenland, and Mexico. I have also worked as a resident artist with ten school classes, developing longer creative photography programmes with children and young people, as well as leading workshops and participatory projects in social housing communities.

The workshops can explore themes such as portraiture, everyday life, identity, dreams, place, and belonging. Participants work with simple photographic exercises and are encouraged to experiment freely. Depending on the project, we use digital cameras, mobile phones, or Polaroid cameras. Photography can also be combined with sound recordings, interviews, and personal stories.

An important part of my workshops is creating a space where there is no single “right” way of seeing the world. The participants’ own ideas, experiences, and perspectives are always the starting point.

Mexico

Photography workshops with children and young people from Pina Palmera (NGO hat has been working with people with disabilities since 1984), using the camera as a playful and creative way to explore their surroundings and tell their own stories.

Resident Artist – Schools, Denmark

Longer-term photography programmes developed with ten school classes, giving children and young people time to experiment with photography, develop their own visual language, and create work around themes connected to their lives and surroundings.

Social Housing Communities, Denmark

Participatory photography workshops and creative projects developed with residents in social housing communities, using photography as a way to bring people together and create space for their own perspective sand stories.

Beyond Male and Female: The Muxes of Mexico

In southern Mexico, the Zapotec culture has a long tradition of recognizing muxes – people born male who identify as muxe, an identity with its own place within the community.
Photographer and visual storyteller Shazia Khan and musician Ole Reimer take students on a visual and musical journey into the world of the muxes. Through photography, personal stories, music and sound, the presentation offers an insight into Mexican and Zapotec culture while exploring questions of gender, identity and belonging.
Rather than offering simple answers, the presentation invites students to encounter a different cultural perspective and reflect on their own ideas about gender and identity. There is also plenty of room for questions and discussion.

Workshop at Svendborg Gymnasium, for Danish upper secondary school students

What teachers say

“It has been one of the most interesting presentations we have had.”

“Ole and Shazia got our third-year students to look at Mexico and cultural diversity in a completely new way. This presentation is certainly not only of interest to students of Spanish.”

“The presentation not only offers an insight into Mexican culture, but also introduces an unfamiliar perspective on gender identity. It opens up a highly relevant discussion about culture, gender and identity.”

The presentation is particularly relevant for Spanish, social studies and subjects dealing with culture, identity and society, but can also be presented across subjects and to larger groups of students.

Read the article in Danish Magazine, FEMINA here

Information about the workshops and booking here