Photovoice project with Kirklees College

Recently I was invited to facilitate a Photovoice project alongside Kirklees College to explore what a ‘good life’ looks like for Staff and Students inside and outside of College. It was a wonderful experience and I am so grateful to the team at Kirklees College for the opportunity, in particular to Jax Lovelock who hosted the project brilliantly!!

One of my favourite questions to use in this context is ‘What does a good life look like for me’ it’s such a gentle way in to some very powerful topics and allows people to naturally highlights the positive (and not so positive) things that are going on for them in that moment - through conversation with Jax and the team at the College it became clear that ‘what does a good life look like’ would be a good title for the project overall as it spoke to the purpose behind the College’s interest in Photovoice.

Nothing beats an in person exhibition BUT I am keen to create as many different ways for people to access these projects as possible and an online resource certainly adds value and legacy as well as being accessible to people who might not be able to attend in person.

To that end I am experimenting with different ways of presenting Photovoice projects using video and audio recordings. I was very tempted to break this up into a few separate blogs but on reflection I think it’s best to keep it all together in one place - I’d welcome your feedback on how this works for you (or not)!

Below you can see a selection of images and words created by people who took part.

We recorded some audio of people reading out their captions - it really does change the experience when listening to the photographers explain in their own words what these images mean to them, I’d love to know what you think about it.

As well as finding different ways to gather the experiences of participants I am also really keen to invite people attending exhibitions to share their thoughts with us about the photographs and stories created, these comments were gathered via feedback forms online and in person at the exhibition.

And finally here are some reflections from the photographers on their experience of the project, again using audio recordings as a way of inviting their actual voices into the process.

Well, what remains to be said after all of that I hear you cry?? Nothing! Suffice it to say that I am so very grateful to Jax and the team at Kirklees College for hosting this project so brilliantly and to the students and staff who took part for embracing Photovoice and sharing their thoughts with the world.

In the course of a few short workshops we caught a glimpse into the how the world looks from their point of view and together created a resource that the College can use to prompt conversations and connections with staff and students into the future.

Every time I facilitate a Photovoice project I learn so much about this methodology and the power of images to communicate. It is a privilege to do this work and to walk alongside so many amazing people.