Photovoice: How does it work?
Photovoice is a way of involving people in thinking about the world around them and their own life experiences through photography. As a methodology it has been around for a long time with it’s roots in the work of Brazilian educator Paula Freire. It is a process in which people take photographs to celebrate strengths, illuminate challenges, collaborate for change, and unite through the things that are important to them.
In this blog we’ll give an overview of how Our Creative Connection approaches delivery of Photovoice. It is important to note that each group is different and it can be tailored to suit the specific requirements of any group - however in broad terms here’s what you can expect from a Photovoice project.
Over the course of several workshops we’ll create a set of photographs using simple digital cameras and/or camera phones to explore subjects that are important to people in their lives and that of their community.
It could be something they’re passionate about, something that affects them personally or in the wider world, or something that they want to celebrate.
During each session we’ll discuss a different topic or theme and use photos to tell stories, reflect our thoughts, feelings and communicate ideas. A carefully thought-out topic or theme to explore is a useful starting point for working with images as it will determine the direction of the overall journey. Sometimes the theme is set by the organisation hosting the Photovoice project whilst in other projects the group taking part can set their own theme(s) to be interpreted in their own way.
The group may decide to explore a shared theme which they all explore together or people may wish to each have their own – often this will emerge through the sessions and it is likely that people’s thoughts and feelings may change during the life of the project which is completely natural – we will often revisit the overall theme / subject throughout the project to ensure that everyone is happy with the focus.
The format for workshops will be to start with an activity that gets people thinking about a particular theme which could be something in the media or online, it can be something that is happening locally or stories of international significance. Then we’ll go for a walk to take some photos and finish with another group activity to share the photos taken and reflect on the images created.
We explore the relationship between images and words and their combined power to tell stories and influence thinking - we also develop confidence in visual literacy and how composition and framing can affect how the contents of the image are percieved.
Once a body of work has been created, people choose their favourites to be printed along with a title and short description ready to be displayed. An exhibition will be held at the end of the project that showcases the images and invites a wider audience to connect with the subject matters people have chosen to explore.
During the exhibition we can facilitate discussion with attendees about the work on display and gather feedback via QR codes to capture responses in the moment. The exhibition can be moved around to different venues to engage with different audiences and can also form the beginning of a deeper examination of the issues raised.
If you’d like to discuss how this approach can work in your organisation / community please do get in touch hello@ourcreativeconnection.org