Curated by guest co-editors Robin Evans-Agnew and Robert Strack,
this collection revisits the roots and explores promising directions of what they call “the little method that could change the world.”
Photovoice combines participatory photography and critical group dialogue to deepen participants’ understanding of the root causes of pressing health issues; communicate their images and understandings with others, and work in common cause for meaningful social change.
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This issue celebrates the enduring and emancipatory power of photovoice to advance health promotion. Our goal is to inspire a new cadre of practitioners to innovate community empowerment and social change through documentary photography. What we see, we can judge, and we can changes,” said Robin Evans-Agnew.
The collection features 19 articles and calls to action from researchers, practitioners, and thought-leaders engaging in photovoice across diverse settings and addressing a wide range of health priorities. Examples are drawn from Canada, Japan, South Africa, and the United States. Topics include environmental justice, identity and sense of belonging, men’s health, safe school environments, stigma against mental health, countering hate speech, and the impact of COVID-19 on Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.
Readers will find practical articles addressing aspects of designing and operationalizing community-based research not often found in the scholarly literature. “The result is an issue reflective of photovoice itself – imaginative, unafraid of reflexive critique, thoughtful about ethics and power, and, above all, inspiring,” says HPP Editor-in-Chief Kathleen Roe.
One of the most important contributions of the collection is a moving editorial by Caroline Wang, the individual perhaps most identified with the early development of the method. Speaking publicly for the first time in many years, Wang reflects on the origin story and the importance of quest in “the tai qi of photovoice.”
Robert Strack shares the vision that organized this collaboration, “We sometimes hear an image is worth a thousand words, but we are here to assert that it is the stories and captions that bring an image to the heart. Human connection, through image and storied caption, are the needed ingredient for collective understanding and action. We hope this issue dedicated to photovoice continues to shine a light on this extraordinary participatory approach so desperately needed for hearing and healing as a community.”
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