PhotoVoice Method

Photovoice is a method to promote the visibility of the people who has limited power due to vulnerabilities that they have in the community from race, gender, class, poverty etc. It promotes the usage of photography by providing them a place to capture their environments and experiences and share with others. The pictures can be used later on with narrations done by the photographers to bring realities of the photographers and their experiences for promoting change. 

In addition to that, Photovoice^[1] is a participatory research methodology developed to engage women living in Yunnan,China in development planning process concerning health education. As Wang and Burris defines, the photo voice has three main goals (p.370): 

• To enable the people to record and reflect their community’s strengths and concerns
• To promote critical dialogue and knowledge about important community issues through discussion of photographs 
• To reach policy makers 

Therefore, we have planned to use the methodology to give the young people a space to engage with the community and develop the photographs to record and reflect the issue within their communities from their own perspectives. The photovoice method helps the participants to identify the issues in their own communities through their lenses regardless of the context and help them to define the context of the issues that they see in their communities. 

In addition to that, the photo voice helps the young people to narrate the photos that they have taken in their own communities through self-reflection and self-understanding of their realities. The photo voice methodology internalises the methodology defined by Freire in “Pedagogy of Oppressed”.^[2] Pedagogy of Oppressed^[3] promotes “conscientização” i.e. “learning to perceive social, political and economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality”. In this sense, Photovoice help the people not only young people but the overall community to take the issues in their hands and engage with the policy makers in a constructive manner.  According to the Wang and Burris, Freire’s methodology enables people to think critically concerning to the issues in their own communities and make them begin discussing concerning the every day concerns from social issues to political that influence their lives. 

In next, the photovoice methodology takes its roots from the feminist theory. The Wang and Burris (citing Maguire), explains as follows (p.370): 

“Consider the drawing used by Freire for cultural circle discussions. The drawing, used as the basis for group dialogue about “man in the world” without doubt, suggest that man, not women, create culture. These drawing encourage men and women to focus on men’s contribution to culture. Freire maintained that domination was the major theme of our epoch, yet his conscientization tools ignore men’s domination of women”. 

Therefore, the oppressed in this context was the women, but the LGBTIQ+ communities were neglected on representation and moreover, they were not visible in the communities. Lastly, the approach depend on the documentary photography. However, the people who do not have chance to document the issues, the method provides them with a space to take pictures to document the issues that they see as important. We call this process a Photovoice Path derived from the model developed by Lorenz and Webster^[4] while working with the people with brain injury and adopted as the following to the context that we have worked within this project.

1. Learn about Photovoice : The participants should be informed about the photovoice at the first stage. The lack of experience does not matter to involve in the activity or the lack of knowledge about the photography or the quality of the photos that they made is not important. It is their moment to grab what they see important in their own community and moment that they can narrate the reality that they see as captions of the photos that they will develop. 

• Take photographs: The participants should choose a theme by themselves that they want to make visible in their own community focusing on the young people who are excluded and disadvantaged rather than the overall community. This theme should derive during the workshop that are implemented in locally in each country and focused on the context of the country. During this process, the workshop implementers will use the guidelines concerning to development of the photography and taking photography with photo cameras and mobile phones(using Lightroom free edition for Android and Iphone).  During this process, the participants should follow the guidelines that are developed : 
  •  Make your research 
  • Be aware about your biases and privileges 
  • Engage with compassion
  • Ask permission
  • Use the photography as a tool for change
  • Share the photos with the people 
  • Take pictures to empower not to pity

After taking the photos, the discussion should take place regarding the photos through the experience that they have. 

• Discuss Photographs & reflect on experience : Pictures taken will be chosen by each participant and they will discuss about their feelings and the experience. The process will be done in small groups and the participants should discuss about the photographs and how they perceive the meanings for them. By doing so, the following questions might be used to initiate the discussion concerning the issues that the participants see about the pictures from a sociological point of view that they make : 
• What do you see here?
• What is really happening here?
• How does this relate to our lives?
• Why does this concern, situation, or strength exist?
• How can we become empowered through our new understanding?
• And, what can we do?

• Write and Dictate Narratives :  With the discussion, the participants will write narrative concerning to their experiences, feelings and the interpretations that comes from the process that they have involved during the workshop to prevent any misinterpretation that the viewer can get. During this process, as we plan to make the issues of young people and the local communities visible, the participants should focus on the narratives that help the viewers to guide the issues from the perspectives of participants. 

Even though, there are several techniques to dictate and narrate the photos during the Photo Voice activities, the most well-known and used method is SHOWED^[5]. During this project, we have adopted the methodology to limit the purpose to the visualisation of the issues of young people rather than overall community issues or as Wang and Burris did targeting the issues regarding health. SHOWED Method has 6 stages: 

This process helps the young people to engage with the photos as well as initiates the discussion for the development of the narratives associated with photos that they have taken before the sharing with the community. 

• Choose Photos for Sharing : After the narration and stories that they have developed during the previous processes, they will chose 4-6 pictures portraying the people in their communities. In that process, the participants will show the issues that they see in the lives of the people that they have portrayed. During this process, the photobooks are developed and finalised to be presented in the Exhibitions. 

• Present & Exhibit : The exhibition is for our community to ensure that the issues that we have made visible in the previous stages are presented and later discussed with the people. During this process, each participant will present their photos to the wider audience who involved in the visual story telling process and all pictures will be put in online webpage to create an awareness on wider communities in the countries involved in the project. 

During the overall process, the participants of the Training of Trainers programme (consult on the chapter) will facilitate the process. Their role is to guide the participants to ensure the activity is implemented in a smooth and productive way. Main role of facilitators to engage the participants to discuss and develop a trust between the participants to engage with each other. 

Role of Facilitator in a nutshell is: 

• To improve the ability of participants to work together 
• To transmit the knowledge of photography and the photo voice method 
• To create a safe space for participants to discuss openly about their experiences and understandings 
• To respect the participants’ ideas and approaches to photography and the society 
• To develop a relationship between participants based on mutual trust 
• To guide participants through the overall process from developing photos to creating narratives 
• To understand the importance of inclusion while taking photography 

We have used to photovoice methodology to promote the active engagement of young people to the process as well as make them portray the issues in their own communities by qualifying them from photography to narration. Thus, the local activity guidelines are not only focused on the implementation of “Photo Voice” method but as well as the photography techniques and inclusion within the photography. 

The materials are not important in the implementation of the Photo Voice method or our approach. As Wang and Burris points out the empowering perspective of photovoice as “A premise of Photovoice method is accessibility and that the people can participate with minimum technical training”. (p.383) ^[6]. Therefore, during the implementation of the local training activities or training of trainers activity, we do not expected the people to have previous technical training on photography or the usage of photography on youth work. 

We believe that Photo voice should be used due to the following reasons^[7]. :

1. The rewards of taking photographs are immediate. 
2. Photography is fun and creative. 
3. Taking photographs or videos of familiar scenes and people can change participants’ perceptions about their social and physical environment. 
4. Basic photography is easy to learn and accessible to almost everyone. 
5. “A picture is worth a thousand words.” 
6. Images can be understood regardless of language, culture, or other factors.
7. Policy makers can’t deny reality when it’s staring them in the face. 

Thus, we promote the usage of photo voice as it is accessible, easy to be implemented and easy to engage the young people in the process due to its creative and fun nature. In addition to that, the narrations and the process of discussion engages young people while increasing their critical thinking skills and exhibitions as a result of the process provides them a sense of achievement. 

PhotoVoice in Youth Work and Youth Research

Photovoice has been used to implement social change activities engaging different spectrums of the disadvantaged populations from migrants, young people, women or children. Photo voice allows the disadvantaged populations to speak out and take action towards to the issues that they see as important in their communities. Moreover, it provides a pathway for the communities to engage with policy makers through the dissemination of the results developed during the implementation of the activities. There has been several examples from documenting the violence^[8] or health related issues as well as the well-being of youth. In addition to that, the advantage of photo voice is that the participants can engage in critical discussions and increase their critical-thinking skills.^[9]

Photo voice is easy to use and engages young people in a constructive manner to implement needs-assessment or to understand the issues that the young people faces in the communities. Wilson et al.(p.38) explains the power of photo voice method as follows^[10] :

“Many authors demonstrate the value of adopting particular research methodologies and methods to best fit young people’s capabilities. Photovoice is one of the most common examples of this. Through photovoice, young people photograph their experiences related to research themes, and add a narrative explaining their choice of photographs). One primary study involving 64 6th-8th grade students (approximately aged 11-14) explained that the photovoice research method was selected “because it is interactive, works well in a group format, and involves art and movement, which was thought to appeal to youth who have competing activity choices”. A common method of involving young people in research design is through YPAGs, which are defined earlier in this report and in the glossary.” 

Henceforth, policy makers as well as the youth organisations can benefit from the photo voice method to engage the youth in the decision-making processes through the tool of photography not only to understand their needs but making them the active agencies of research. Moreover, including disadvantaged young people to engage in an activity that give them a sense of belonging as well as a space to raise their voice. Thus, the implementing photo voice activities with the disadvantaged populations empower them. We move the example of the photo voice to a participatory photography with this project and harmonise the two methods to engage young people for giving them a space to raise their voices while increasing their technical skills on photograph. 

Aside with photo voice method, participatory photography can provide a ground by providing experiences of informal exchanges in an environment where the young people engage on discussions through the images that they have developed while understanding the realities and perceptions of others. It as well as can promote the intercultural dialogue within the communities by providing a new space for the young people to engage with each other. By harmonising both methodologies, we are able to give youth an opportunity to build and confirm their abilities while making them engage not only with their communities but giving them a space to common on their experiences and insights about their societies. 

Photo Voice promotes the critical consciousness during its implementation. During the discussions and reflections, the young people understand the issues in their communities in a deepened manner and it provides them a pathway to find solutions for these issues. Photo Voice can provide youth workers and youth researchers with tools to understand the issues while engaging young people in the process in a meaningful manner. 

Photo voice allows young people express their concerns and determine and prioritize the issues that they see in their communities. In addition to that, as it does not require any prior knowledge concerning to photography, the young people become encouraged during all process to gain new skills while documenting the issues that they see in their communities. Moreover, the photo voice gives young people critical thinking skills concerning the issues in their communities. During the process of the photo voice, the young people has the power in their hands to shape the issues rather than as the passive agencies to provide information. 

Photo voice helps youth workers to implement needs-assessment by engaging young people to the process concerning the issues in the communities. Thus, photo voice can be used to engage young people in planning process of the youth services as well as to the development of the new interventions in their communities in a plain and creative way. It gives pathway to the youth workers to develop activities targeting the issues of young people and doing the process in a deliberative and youth-friendly way. 

Photo voice help youth researchers to capture more detailed information and gather knowledge and community issues that might not be visible or hard to explain by young people in an interview or focus group setting. Also, the youth researches can use the photo voice method by incorporating other research methods such as focus groups, in-depth interviews or surveys to gather more deepened data after building up the information through the photo voice activities.  

Photo voice help communities to act collectively through a visual and participatory way that affect the well-being of young people in the community. In addition to that, Photo voice goes beyond the needs assessment but helps researchers and youth workers to build a trust in the community for long-term strategies to increase the engagement of community in planning and development process. Moreover, the products that are developed by the participants can be used to promote issues by disseminating the already developed knowledge through exhibitions, webpages or social media to create pressure and influence on policy makers. 

Thus, Photo Voice gives young people an opportunity to engage in socio-political contexts. According to CoE^[11], youth work is a term covering the wide variety of activities from social, cultural, education, environmental or political nature. Youth work is as well as quintessentially a social practice, working with young people and the societies in which they live, facilitating young people’s active participation and inclusion in their communities and in decision making. From this definition, it can be understood that Photo Voice is a facilitating method to engage young people and involve young people in the decision-making processes by using a creative tool. Therefore, the usage of photo voice should be mainstreamed in youth work to promote deliberative decision-making mechanisms through the compassionate dialogue and fully engagement of young people.

In addition to that, the youth work has empowering nature for the young people by involving them into the activities and one of its main aims is to promote that the young people’s voices are heard loud and clear and their interests are taken into account in policy development processes. Photo Voice can address the issue of the advocacy in the youth work and its impact on the life of young people in positive manner by making the issues in the communities more visible.  

By using photo voice in youth studies as well as youth work, the organizations can benefit from the practice. To clarify, the photo voice can be used for the following purposes in the youth work context: 

1. Needs-Assessment: By implementing Photo Voice activities, the youth workers can understand the needs of the community as well as the individual needs of the young people in a constructive manner. The tool can help the youth workers to develop new programs and projects targeting the issues that are identified during the Photo Voice process as a result and follow-up of the overall activity. In addition to that, rather than solely asking young people “What do they want?”, photo voice method provides series of tools to narrate, to dive in on the issues and provides as well as solutions in between the lines. 

• Making issues of young people visible: The young people are provided with an opportunity to present the work in formats of exhibition or use the tool as a later on to promote the issues that they see in the communities. That can help youth workers to engage young people both fact finding and solution development processes and it provides a deliberative youth work process rather than engaging youth as sole benefactors of the activities but make them involve in the development process. 

• Increasing the belonging of young people to communities: The young people with disadvantaged background will develop a sense of belonging by making them involve in the process. Moreover, they will feel encouraged to take a step forward concerning to the issues that they see in their communities and increase their belonging. 

• Engaging the disadvantaged groups to the planning processes: By giving an opportunity to young people with fewer opportunities and encouraging their further participation in the social and political life, it will increase their active participation to the communities. Moreover, they will feel that they can contribute in a personal level to the change and they will become more eager to engage with the community. Moreover, during the discussions and the exhibition process, they will have a space to raise their voices and tell their stories directly to the wider audiences which will help their personal development.  

• Promoting the change on policy level: Lastly, the youth work is not only providing services for the young people but advocating the rights of young people on policy level. The activities that will be implemented will trigger a policy level change by engaging with the politicians and decision-makers. 

The examples that we have laid out above are limited but can be extended in the context to promote the well-being of young people and active citizenship of young people through the youth work. As Photo Voice method develop knowledge that can used later on, it can as well be used as a tool to promote the social action in the communities and engage variety of groups not limited to youth.  

Advantages and disadvantages of Photo Voice should be considered during the implementation of the Photo Voice activities. According to Burris and Wang^[12](p.372-373), Photo voice comes with its advantages and disadvantages. 

Advantages of Photo Voice : 

• it enables researchers and practitioners to gain “the possibility of perceiving the world from the viewpoint of the people who lead lives that are different from those traditionally in control of the means for imaging the world” 
• addresses the descriptive mandate of the needs assessment through an exceptionally powerful means-the visual image 
• can affirm the ingenuity and perspective of society’s most vulnerable populations 
• facilitates the sampling of different social and behavioural settings. 
• can sustain community participation during the period between the needs assessment phase and program implementation 
• provides a way to reaffirm or redefine program goals during the period when community needs are being assessed 
• enables to bring the explanations, ideas, or stories of other community members into the assessment process
• provides tangible and immediate benefits to people and their networks 
• enables people to depict not only the community’s needs but also its assets 
• in a Freirean context of problem-posing education, the images produced and the issues discussed and framed by people may stimulate social action.

These advantages provide a wide-variety of usage in the youth work from increasing the young people’s involvement but making them engage from the starting point of the initial activity and enable youth worker to implement continuous monitoring mechanism throughout the activity. However, as every method, it has its disadvantages as well. 

Disadvantages of Photo Voice: 

• Potential risks should be made explicit to the participants according to the context 
• Personal judgement might intervene at many different level of representation 
• Broader class stratification may be produced by the control of resources
• Harder to implement in large-scales i.e. with larger groups 
• Can take longer time to implement 
• Participants might find it intimidating the overall process 

Therefore, during the implementation of the photo voice activities, these advantages and disadvantages should be considered and the methodological planning should be made according to these issues. Our methodology has been developed by considering these advantages and disadvantages to ensure that the process is implemented in smooth and productive way with the participants. Due to this reason, the groups of Photo Voice activities in local communities are not higher than 20 to ensure that there is room for discussion and sharing while the participants feel secure and fully involved in the process. 

^[1] Wang C, Burris MA. Photovoice: Concept, Methodology, and Use for Participatory Needs Assessment. Health Education & Behavior. 1997;24(3):369-387. doi:10.1177/109019819702400309

^[2] Liebenberg, L. (2018). Thinking Critically About Photovoice: Achieving Empowerment and Social Change. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 17(1).

^[3] Freire, Paulo( 2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York :Continuum

^[4] Lorenz,L. ; Webster B.(2001), Doing Your Own PhotoVoice Project.

https://www.brainline.org/sites/default/files/Photovoice_Facilitators_Guide.pdf

^[5] Photovoice Hamilton – Manual and Resource Kit (2007) | https://www.naccho.org/uploads/downloadable-resources/Programs/Public-Health-Infrastructure/Photovoice-Manual.pdf

^[6] Wang C, Burris MA. Photovoice: Concept, Methodology, and Use for Participatory Needs Assessment. Health Education & Behavior. 1997;24(3):369-387. doi:10.1177/109019819702400309

^[7] Community Toolbox : Implementing Photovoice in Your Community | https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/photovoice/main

^[8] Yang, Yingwei; Lim, Andrew C.; Wallace, Renée E.; Marhefka-Day, Stephanie; and Liller, Karen D. (2020) “Photovoice and Youth on Violence and Related Topics: A Systematic Review,” Florida Public Health Review: Vol. 17, Article 6. Available at: https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/fphr/vol17/iss1/6

^[9] Yang, Y. (2023). How to Conduct a Photovoice Systematic Review: Lessons Learned and Recommendations. The Qualitative Report, 28(4), 979-990. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2023.5792

^[10] Wilson, O., Daxenberger, L., Dieudonne, L., Eustace, J., Hanard, A., Krishnamurthi, A., Quigley, P., and Vergou, A. (2020). A rapid evidence review of young people’s involvement in health research. London: Wellcome https://cms.wellcome.org/sites/default/files/2021-02/a-rapid-evidence-review-of-young-peoples-involvement-in-health-research.pdf

^[11] Council of Europe – Youth |  https://www.coe.int/en/web/youth/youth-work

^[12] Wang C, Burris MA. Photovoice: Concept, Methodology, and Use for Participatory Needs Assessment. Health Education & Behavior. 1997;24(3):369-387. doi:10.1177/109019819702400309