- Photovoice entrusts cameras in the hands of the community members and uses the visual image to furnish evidence and allow a participatory means of sharing expertise and knowledge. - Three goals of Photovoice 1. Enable people to record and reflect their community's strengths and concerns 2. Promote critical dialogue and knowledge about community issues 3. Reach policymakers - Photovoice draws from Freire who noted that the visual image is a means of enabling people to think critically about their community. - Male bias influences participatory research a lot. Through photovoice by having women themselves take photos this can be powerful. - Photovoice for needs assessment offers a distinct advantage - what researchers think is important may neglect what the community thinks is important. - Photovoice also helps people describe their perceived needs without the need for reading or writing. As photographer Lewis Hine said "If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug a camera" - Photovoice can also start conversations in community. Often people ask the person with the camera what they're up to and it allows them to share about an initiative. This can also further bring the community together particularly when people give photographs back to neighbors and friends. - Photovoice allows a people to depict a community's assets as well. Often surveys and other forms focus on weaknesses and inadvertently build a sense of inferiority. - This paper focuses on photovoice in the context of participatory needs assessment but it may also be used in participatory evaluation. - Minkler notes that if the intent to do no harm is paramount then there is the danger that "the process of community organization itself may serve more to maintain the status quo than to change it". Photovoice might lead to self censorship by community members and avoid politically sensitive topics that might put them at risk. - You can also what is included in the photovoice method and you cannot get an idea of what has been left out which might also be crucial. - Ideal principles for facilitating involves a commitment to reduce dependendence on the facilitator to solve future problems - Facilitators while sounding neutral need to be careful not to infringe on the voice and style of those taking photographs. They can guide but must be open minded to different styles and approaches. - The facilitator must recognise their role as political and encourage dialogue and discussion with respect to the photos. - While giving guidelines and training it's important to expand rather than limit the perceived range of assets and issues in the community. - While working with Yunnan farmers the researchers simply asked the women to capture the spirit of village women's everyday life. The word spirit here was an implicit compliment and an intentional choice. - It's important to discuss the ethics of taking photos early on. Discussion maybe had on what is an acceptable way to seek permission to take photos. - Further it helps to discuss framing, composition and other technical aspects of capturing photos. It's better to minimise technical training so it doesn't stifle the creativity of participants. - Group discussion on the pictures lead to very interesting dialogue. Many women developed confidence having their photos discussed. - In using photovoice for participant needs assessment the researchers in the paper suggest a three part process 1. Selecting photographs that most accurately reflect the communities' needs and assets 2. Contextualising through stories of what the photos mean 3. Identifying issues and themes The community leads the way in this process and they choose the photos themselves. Group discussions help in contextualising the photos. With the help of researchers they codify the stories and extract themes. - Prioritising is one challenge that comes with a photovoice approach. It is hard to guarantee that the findings are truly representative. However we can replicate internally and externally to strengthen the case. - Photovoice avoids the problem of overfitting by having the participants themselves perform the entire process. Photography provides the medium for people's voices and vision to surface. | | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Wang, Caroline, and Mary Ann Burris. "Photovoice: Concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment." _Health education & behavior_ 24, no. 3 (1997): 369-387. - [Link](https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/67790/10.1177_109019819702400309.pdf?sequence=2) |