Participatory Visual Methods and Empowerment

Photovoice and photo interview engage people with limited power in their communities in contributing their knowledge to wider community conversations. The research process activates mind and voice as participants and researchers reflect on a topic of interest, express lived experience through photos and interviews (or group discussions), participate in visual analysis, and take action individually or in collaboration with nonprofit organizations. The photographs become spaces for reflective thought, discussion, and action in the research endeavor. We argue that the spaces created become moments of empowerment in which participants exert a measure of control and influence over the research process and its findings. This presentation will focus on two studies with vulnerable populations: women living in poverty in Mexico and older adults with brain injury in the US. Presenting two photographs and related text from each study, we describe our approaches to data collection and analysis and reflect on individual and organizational empowerment in both contexts. This presentation provides a model for interpreting participant photos and text generated through processes that (1) engage research participants as partners in the research endeavor and (2) employ a theoretical framework to understand participants’ data (photos) and contextualizing (text) in a broader context of psychological empowerment. In conclusion, we will illustrate how these visual methods interact with the concept of reflection spaces to bring emotion and voice (the opportunity to express expertise) and into the research process, construct meaning from life experiences, and encourage conversations about ways to move forward