Photovoice - An approach to Community Development?
It was great to catch up with my friend Cormac Russell from Nurture Development recently - I was privileged to work with Cormac for a number of years exploring the wonderful world of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD).
It’s been a while since we’ve had chance to catch up and through our conversation we discussed the role that photo voice could play in Community Development.
Like all great conversations it has been buzzing around my brain ever since and has prompted me to write this blog in part so that I can hold on to some of these thoughts before they blow away in the breeze!
I first encountered Photovoice through the work of Paulo Friere the Brazilian educator whose book ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ I would highly recommend to anyone working in Community Development (or any paid role involved with communities).
It provides a framework for thinking about structural inequality and the role that practitioners should play in supporting those on the receiving end of oppression by society / the system to take back their authority.
However when I looked more deeply into photovoice practice at large I was struck that it’s application seemed limited to the world of social / academic research which by definition brought an emphasis on academic rigour and the potential for a power imbalance between those instigating the photo voice and those carrying it out.
It is important to note that I am not knocking these approaches or those who develop them - in the context of academic and social research I can totally see how a photo voice method would far exceed the impact of more traditional forms of research. However I approach Photovoice from a Community Development perspective which feels like a very different starting point.
The principles of ABCD resonate strongly with Photovoice and they underpin my own practice too. Reflecting on my experience with Nurture Development and ABCD, many of the organisations and communities I worked with across the UK were wrestling with the challenge of how they could be in relationship with each other for their mutual benefit - often these hurdles to understanding were ones of language & perception.
Photovoice brings people together through images which can transcend language barriers and provides opportunity to see things from another persons point of view. I am fascinated by the way that we all see things differently - even if we look at the same image we will view it through the lens of our own experiences and this difference in viewpoint is a great jump off into conversation, connection and understanding.
Shifting Photovoice away from an academic research method into a mutual, community development approach begins with how people are invited in to the process and whether they have agency over the scope of the themes to be explored.
Drawing on ABCD principles to consider whether the Photovoice is being delivered TO/FOR/WITH or BY the people involved?
As Nurture Development have shown HERE power is never relocated by accident and it won’t just magically happen by itself. It requires intentionality on the part of practitioners and flexibility on the part of host organisations to give space to this important process and of course most importantly in an environment where trust is present between all concerned.
I think Photovoice can have relevance in a Community Development context especially if it is carried out in a geography that is small enough in scale for everyone involved to relate to. Another important factor is the timescales for the work being sufficiently long to allow for a deepening and growing of the approach.
Photovoice on it’s own is not a replacement or alternative to Community Development. It is however an opportunity to open up a different conversation between people that may lay the groundwork from which Community Development can grow.