This thesis examines the role of photography, power, and participation in ‘Ten Minute Town’—a performance-arts research project in Makhanda, South Africa. Through ethnographic fieldwork and photographic practice, it explores how photography operates as a technology of power, control, and (de)coloniality in a post-colonial and post-apartheid context. Guided by four research questions, the study investigates: the extent to which photography can function as a decolonial practice, how meaning shifts when cameras change hands, how images are shaped by the gaze of those who view them, and how the positionality of the photographer influences participation as well as representation.

Drawing from a youth workshop as a case study, in combination with ongoing collaborations with performers, the research demonstrates how the act of photographing can redistribute—but not fully equalize—power, particularly when access to images and technology remains uneven between the Global North and South. Participants displayed a sophisticated awareness of photographic practices, challenging outdated assumptions of passive subjects and revealing the camera’s potential as a collaborative tool and performer in its own right. At the same time, tensions arose around representation, with some images reproducing familiar narratives of poverty and harmful colonial stereotypes of Africa, while others, created more collaboratively, contributed to the collective meaning-making within the performances and larger research project at hand.

The thesis argues that photography in participatory arts-based research is never neutral: it is deeply entangled within the histories of research and colonialism, the positionality of the photographer, and the situated gaze of those who look at images. It tentatively concludes that while photography can open spaces for dialogue, co-creation, and social change, it also carries risks of re-colonisation if issues of access, authorship, and representation are not critically addressed. These findings contribute to debates in Communication for Development as well as Artistic Research, highlighting the importance of reflexivity, horizontal-collaboration, and critical engagement when using photography as both a research method and a medium for storytelling.