The Use of PhotoVoice in Community Work
Eduardo Marques, Miguel Torga University College, Portugal
“We don’t see things as they are. We see them
as we are.” — Anais Nin
Photovoice is a methodology mostly used in the field of education and social exclusion, which combines photography with social action.
It was developed on the 80 ´s by Caroline C. Wang of the University of Michigan, and Mary Ann Burris, research associate at LondonUniversity.
The concept owes a debt to the Paulo Freire´s pedagogy related to critical consciousness, anti oppressive methodologies, feminist theory, and empowerment.
Photovoice is an intervention strategy that facilitates the empowerment by creating a space for participation.
With Photovoice Social Workers can use photography to builds the capacities of participants to mobilize problemsolving in communities.
Photovoice is highly flexible and can be adapted to specific participatory goals (such as needs assessment, asset mapping, and evaluation), different groups and communities, and distinct policy and public health issues.
At the start of a Photovoice programme the target group is asked to represent their community or point of view by taking photographs. As alternative the group could be briefed on a Theme / Issue before being trained in the use of cameras.
Photovoice is a method often used among marginalised people, and is intended to give insight into how they conceptualize their circumstances.
Photovoice is an avenue through which people highlight issues that affect them and their communities (Elizabeth Sowei).
Since 1992, Photovoice has been used to share peoples' lived experiences, and to promote social change in communities around the globe.
Photovoice is also a participatory action research strategy using photography as a tool for social change. The process turns the camera lens toward the eyes and experiences of vulnerable populations and gives people the opportunity to record, reflect and critique personal and community issues in creative ways. It is a qualitative and participatory research method that facilitates contextual understanding and "gives voice" to people, communities, and issues often ignored by mainstream society. Wang and Burris (1997) define photovoice as
"aprocess by which people can identify, represent, and enhance their community through a specific photographic technique”.
Sometimes a Photovoice project could be complemented with an on-going large-scale quantitative survey effort and many in-depth, qualitative interviews designed to gain a better understanding of issues related to population movement and individual, household, and community well-being.
According to Wang and Burris (1997), Photovoice has three
Main Goals:
1) To empower people to document and reflect the strengths and weaknesses of their community by photographing daily life;
2) To promote critical dialogue and knowledge, facilitating communication and dialogue in large and small groups of photographers, to identify important community issues;
3) To appeal to policymakers and other people of influence in the interest of change.
Photovoice has different Stages that can include:
- conceptualizing the problem
- defining broader goals and objectives
- recruiting policy makers as the audience for Photovoice findings
- training the trainers
- conducting Photovoice training
- devising the initial theme/s for taking pictures
- taking pictures
- facilitating group discussion
- critical reflection and dialogue
- selecting photographs for discussion
- contextualizing and storytelling
- codifying issues, themes, and theories
- documenting the stories
- conducting the formative evaluation
- reaching policy makers, donors, media, researchers, and others who may be mobilized to create change
- conducting participatory evaluation of policy and program implementation
The first Photovoice training begins with a discussion about photography, ethics, cameras and power.
According with Photovoive philosophy it is very important giving photographs back to community members as a way of expression appreciation, respect, and companionship.
Through Photovoice community people must be engage in a three-stage process that provides the foundation for analyzing the pictures they have taken:
1. Selecting – choosing those photographs that most accurately reflect the community's concerns and assets
On the first stage, the group select photographs they considered most significant, or simply they like more, from each roll of film they had taken. A real participation is very important, it is they who choose the photographs. To achieve the objectives the facilitator empowers people to lead the discussion.
2. Contextualizing – telling stories about what the photographs mean
On the second stage, startthe contextualization or storytelling. It is a process of group discussion, suggested by the acronym VOICE (voicing our individual and collective experience). People describe the meaning of their images in small or large group discussions. Photographs alone, considered outside the context of their own voices and stories, would contradict the essence of the method.
3. Codifying – identifying the issues, themes, or theories that emerge
On the third stage, participants reflect, codifying and give meanings to single images. Three types of dimensionscan be identified through the dialogue process: issues, themes, or theories.
The group can codify issues when the concerns targeted for action are pragmatic, immediate, and tangible. This is the most direct application of the analysis. They may also codify themes and patterns, or develop theories that are grounded in data that have been systematically gathered and analyzed in collective discussion.
Aparticipatory approach avoids the distortion of fitting data into a predetermined paradigm; through participation we hear and understand how people make meaning themselves, or construct what matters to them.
The last step on thisparticipatory process is reaching policy makers, donors, media, researchers, and others who may be mobilized to create change.
This can be done organizing a conference or/and an exhibition that allows community members without money, power, or status to communicate to policymakers, to discuss their problems as they are seen by them and what changes must occur.
An exhibition is aimingto highlighting to the leaders of the country, both at the national and community level, the issues of concern as seen through the eyes of the people.
Through the exhibition leaders will be able to see and understand the issues affecting their communities and hopefully address some of them through community programs.
For social workers, Photovoice add a visual element to the social change, empowering and engage the community in planning, problem solving and policy issues.
Photovoice provides pictorial evidence of community issues (a picture being worth a thousand words) and at the same time, provides an alternative mean of expression which may help include those who are more visual than literate.
Photovoice is the right methodology to collected detailed information from individual participants andprovides a snapshot of an area or issue from which to develop indicators and to gauge changes/responses.
Photovoice in theory and practice is oriented participation toward the empowerment and liberation of oppressed groups.
This method has been used to promote change in the lives of many oppressed and powerless groups,at the four continents assisting street children, orphans, refugees and other victims of political violence, mothers with learning difficulties and Head Start parents, immigrant workers and Latino immigrant adolescents, individuals with HIV/AIDS and people who work with this population, village women in China, the homeless, and others special needs groups.
Photovoice, to paraphrase Glik, Gordon, Ward, Kouame, and Guessan, is not simply the shuffling of information around, but entails people reflecting on their own community portraits and voices and on what questions can be linked into more general constructs or can be seen to be interrelated. It is a method that enables people to define for themselves and others, including policy makers, what is worth remembering and what needs to be changed.
Social Workers can use PHOTOVOICE for:
- Engage community
- Discover community issues
- Develop community capacity
- Develop action plan
- Communicate an issue
- Build alliances, consensus
Social workers must minimize, participants' risks, including physical harm and loss of privacy to themselves or their community.
As facilitators he/she should:
- describe during group discussions the participants' responsibilities when they carry a camera to respect the privacy and rights of others;
- facilitate critical dialogue that yields specific suggestions and ways to respect others' privacy and rights;
- emphasize that no picture is worth taking if it begets the photographer harm or ill will.
Social Workers should obtain a written consent from participants (and, if appropriate, parent or guardian). In addition, participants are asked to obtain written consentfrom the people they photograph.
This has some drawbacks, less spontaneous pictures, but it helps preventing misunderstanding and building trust, establishing the possibility of a long-term relationship.
Photovoice as methodology works well in groups of 8-12 people. If a larger number of participants are involved, a best practice is to organize two or more groups with about 8-12 people per group.