Reflective Portfolio: The Politics of Care Within Documentary Portraiture

I have interpreted ‘collaboration’ in many ways over the past dozen or so years, but there is one meaning which holds the most truth for me at present: two or more people, groups, organisations or communities coming together to create something new, something either slightly or vastly different to what either had originally imagined. What I mean by this is: for the so-called collaborative work to be genuine, sincere, reverent, heartfelt, ethical and professional, a shift in power must occur. Existing hierarchies should be acknowledged and dismantled, with care and consideration. A new ground, a level playing field, must first be established for the ‘collaboration’ to be truly authentic and steeped in a sense of mutual respect, dignity and integrity.