For the Double Heritage project, I gave photography workshops to eleven young people from Moengo, aged 14-26. Some of them had experience with photography, whereas others had none at all.

In total, I led twelve workshops. They consisted of lessons on technique (light, perspective, lines, portrait, color, depth of focus, staging versus documentary, ratios, framing, etcetera). Based on the workshops (given on weekends), the young Moengonese worked on different homework assignments during the week. The assignments adressed themes such as identity and environment, history and future, decay and resilience.

Examples of the homework assignments include:

• Photograph the oldest family possession you can find
• Photograph the oldest man-made thing you can find
• Photograph something that is typical of your generation, that your parents don’t have
• Photograph something you find beautiful about where you live, and something you think is ugly
• Photograph your friends in the place you see them most often
• Photograph your most dear possession(s)

One of the goals was to grow the participants’ own influence in researching and telling their stories.
The photos that the youngsters created for the project highlight various aspects of their lives in Moengo; Marron culture, Suralco’s legacy, the Suriname Guerrilla War, the church, nature, family and community, fashion, education, jobs and unemployment.