Santa Fe — In-person Digital Storytelling Workshop
Turning Lived Experience into Story
StoryCenter Project · Santa Fe, NM
The Challenge:
Digital storytelling workshops ask something vulnerable of their participants — they ask you to find a story from your own life, sit with it, and share it with a room full of strangers. For this workshop in Santa Fe, open to the general public, the challenge was creating a container where a small group of community members felt safe enough to go there. And with an added creative constraint — all images used in the stories had to be photographs taken right there in Santa Fe — participants had to find a way to tell deeply personal stories using only what was around them.
The Approach:
This was a small, intimate workshop of around 8 participants who moved through the full StoryCenter process together over three days. Each person found their story, wrote a script, recorded their narration, and built their digital story using photos they took themselves in Santa Fe. The intimacy of the group made the circle feel close. Being in a small room with people who were all doing the same vulnerable work created a sense of trust that made it possible to go deep.
The Impact:
Every participant left with a completed digital story built entirely from their own words and their own images
The creative constraint of using only photos taken in Santa Fe pushed participants to find unexpected connections between place and personal story
For me personally, this workshop was a turning point — it was my first time facilitating a digital storytelling workshop, my first time telling one of my own stories, and my first time being in circle with others doing the same. The story I made about navigating academic probation in college and finding my way through it has stayed with me as a reminder of what this work can unlock