Full Exposure: Documenting Class Difference

Full Exposure 2009 was a participatory photography project for high school students from differing socio-economic backgrounds. It was developed by Gracia Jalea, a graduate student at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec as part of her Masters’ thesis project.

The project examines the ways in which the class cultural values of society’s ruling elite are consistently privileged in secondary school systems, which often encourages students from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds to suppress their class identities and experiences.

Inspired by visual pedagogy and PhotoVoice’s guiding principals, the project is a participatory action research prototype that seeks to uncover whether photography can be used as an instigator for discussions on class differences in the classroom. During the project, high school students learned digital photography skills that will enable them to express their class identities while also considering, critiquing and discussing the impact that dominant class cultural values and ideologies have had on their education.

To learn more about this project please refer to our website