In Lesson 11 on Community, we learned about Photovoice – a proven technique used in community-based participatory action research – a technique promoting individuals to take photos representing their unique experiences and by sharing what these images represent to them – has been proven to be a highly effective strategy in underserved communities or minority groups (Gruman et al., 2017). Photovoice in community-based participatory action research seeks to “engage community members” as it is “particularly well suited to document the experiences of ethnic minority groups” and sharing those experiences since it allows “unheard” individuals from “hard-to-reach communities” to “overcome language and cultural barriers in communicating with the researchers and others engaged in the research process” (Gruman et al., 2017). It was interesting to read from chapter 12 in our text how researchers utilized photovoice in community-based participatory action research projects among different communities such as the elderly and low-income, African American women, “Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Russian immigrants,” Bosnian and Hispanic immigrants, rural Chinese women, Latino/a/e youth, and Canadian Indigenous communities (Gruman et al., 2017).
The APA defines critical participatory action research (CPAR) as a “framework for engaging research with communities interested in documenting, challenging, and transforming conditions of social injustice” marking a dramatic paradigm shift in research design (Fine & Torre, 2021). CPAR looks to change traditional methods of study designs where “academics research and write ‘about’ or ‘on’ communities as objects of study” and instead aims to create a collaborative system that integrates the points of views of individuals as research through the “activist call” that there is “no research on us, without us,” (Fine & Torre, 2021). The APA adds that these marginalized and underserved communities have “traditionally been the objects of study” and include “children, youth, communities under siege, survivors of state or interpersonal violence, immigrants, struggling farmers, people in prison, LGBTQIA+ young adults, workers, mothers, educators” (Fine & Torre, 2021). Fine and Torre discuss that those individuals who are the objects of study should have an inherent right to research “as co-researchers” to help in the process (Fine & Torre, 2021). One community project referenced in the text was the Public Science Project, which also has open research projects available for different communities to engage in.
“Attempting to liberate the oppressed without their reflective participation in the act of liberation is to treat them as objects that must be saved from a burning building.” – Paulo Freire
In 1994, Dr. Caroline Wang and Dr. Mary Ann Burris introduced photo novella or photovoice – the process of documenting experiences through photography – to capture non-verbal communication in underserved communities and citing that “participation” is a “key element of empowerment” (Wang, C., and Burris, M. A., 1994). Wang and Burris developed photo novella by utilizing a combination of Paulo Freire’s pedagogical approaches for “education for critical consciousness” along with “empowerment education, feminist theory, and documentary photography” in a community of rural Chinese women (Wang, C., and Burris, M. A., 1994). The researchers further identified the Freirian approach in photovoice that takes “the discussion and codification of visual images a step further” noting that this documentation process “belongs not to outsiders, strangers, nor photojournalists, but rather to the people who experience powerlessness as their dominant social reality” (Wang, C., and Burris, M. A., 1994).
There are three main goals in the use of photovoice as described by Dr. Wang which include 1) to enable individuals to “record and reflect their community’s strengths and concerns,” 2) enabling individuals to “promote critical dialogue and knowledge about personal and community issues” through group discussion on the images captured, and 3) the goal to “reach policymakers” in her efforts to raise awareness on the use of photovoice among women to improve health and wellbeing (Wang, C., 1999). The process of photovoice or photo novella allows participants to utilize the “images and words form” to mold the research discussion through codification, by utilizing Freire’s framework of creating “word lists for literacy classes” from their life experiences while avoiding “vocabulary removed from their experience” as well as “approaches that foster dependency or powerlessness” since the essence of photovoice is an individual’s authentic “portrayal of their lives and community” (Wang, C., and Burris, M. A., 1994). Photovoice in CPAR encourages community participants to analyze next steps while identifying societal factors that “contribute to and detract from their health status” (Wang, C., and Burris, M. A., 1994).
Our text also referenced a controversial case study involving Latino adolescents’ photovoice images where some observers without proper context to the images became upset which caused “friction” (Gruman et al., 2017). It was the researcher’s point of view that this is not “necessarily regarded as a bad thing in that it could serve as a catalyst for further dialogue that could stimulate meaningful community change” (Gruman et al., 2017). The use of photovoice in minority communities provided empowering community engagement through a creative voice – that of photography – from an “insider perspective” to assist community leaders in developing problem-solving processes as well as “finding relevant community-based solutions” (Gruman et al., 2017).
Here are some videos on the fascinating use of photovoice within communities, in case you’d like to learn more:
- Health in my Hometown – A Youth Photovoice Project: https://youtu.be/X8lSw5Cdi8k
- Photovoice: From Snapshots to Civic Action: https://youtu.be/l4zAdktMUNg
- The Photovoice Film – https://youtu.be/ICTVdcvCUoU
- The Photovoice Process – Youth Program: https://youtu.be/shrFa2c305g
- Beyond the Shadows of Stigma: https://youtu.be/8oV17jFpUZQ
If you were involved in a photovoice project for a participatory action research project – what would you choose and what would you photograph? What would those images represent to you? Are there any emotions that photovoice would allow you to express?
References
Fine, M., & Torre, M. E. (2021). Essentials of Critical Participatory Action Research (Essentials of Qualitative Methods). American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/essentials-critical-participatory-action-research-sample-chapter.pdf
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2017). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
WANG, C. C. (1999). Photovoice: A Participatory Action Research Strategy Applied to Women’s Health. Journal of Women’s Health, 8(2), 185–192. https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.1999.8.185
Wang, C., & Burris, M. A. (1994). Empowerment through Photo Novella: Portraits of Participation. Health Education Quarterly, 21(2), 171–186. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019819402100204
