Using Photovoice

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Using Photovoice Participatory Video with Youth

• Julie Tritz
• CYFAR Conference
• Baltimore, MD
• May 21, 2009

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Workshop Overview

• Photovoice Participatory Video
• Background and history
• Methodology
• Practical considerations

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BackgroundPhotovoice Participatory Video

• Common Ground
• Stem from documentary productions
• Participatory in nature
• Collective investigation, education and action
• Participants behind the camera
• Power of images
• Political aspect

• Differences
• Medium
• Time developed
• Methodology
• Western vs. Developing contexts

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Overview of Project

• European Union project
• Implemented both methods over 2 years
• Delivery mode day camp
• Two high school youth groups and one adult group
• Two facilitators

Ireland
County Kerry
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Banteer Youth Group, County Kerry
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Social Action Group, Rathmore, County Kerry
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Photovoice
Photovoice is a method that enables people to
define for themselves and others, including
policy makers, what is worth remembering and
what needs to be changed. Caroline Wang

• Objectives
• Enable people to record and reflect their
  communitys strengths and concerns
• Promote critical dialogue and knowledge
• To reach community leaders and policy-makers

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First Phase

• Conduct Training
• Keep it simple
• Learn by doing
• Define Themes
• Take Pictures
• Set parameters on no. of photos taken, amount of
  time

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Second Phase

• Select top 3-5 photographs
• Utilize photographs for discussion
• S What do you SEE here?
• H What is really HAPPENING?
• O How does this relate to OUR lives?
• W Why does this problem or strength exist?
• D What can we DO about it?
• Write short paragraph describing each photo
• Identify issues, themes, theories that emerge
  from the photographs

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Participants writing text for photographs
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Cell phones and other techonology are important
to us. Many times adults do not understand this.
We understand there are times when we
cannot use them and that they are a
privilege but we also want people to respect our
interests.
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Transportation is huge problem for us living in
a rural area. The bus is ok but it doesnt run
often nor is it on time. The train is the same.
We love where we live but getting around to do
things is difficult without a car.
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There is always one that will give all youth a
bad name.
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Third Phase

• Prepare exhibition
• Decide on venue and who to invite
• Individual to give reaction to exhibition or
  panel
• Prepare photographs and mounts
• Set up exhibition
• Reach community leaders and policy-makers
• Advocacy and raising awareness
• Tangible change

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Participatory Video

• Participatory video
• Empowers teaches soft skills and positive
  attitudes
• Engages people in a fun and interactive way
• Amplifies voices via sharing strengths and
  concerns
• Involves three phases pre-production, production
  and post-production

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First Phase

• Embrace a spirit of learning as compared to a
  need for perfection
• Keep instruction simple
• Decide on genre documentary or drama
• Decide on the topic/ focus
• Storyboard the Idea identify who is doing what?
• Sound
• Interview/ Interviewee or Actors
• Best to rotate roles
• Shoot the video
• Sound check (i.e. wind, busy road)
• Batteries fully charged
• Make sure youve hit record
• If 2nd camera, film behind the scenes

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Shooting a scene from Juggling Act
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Second Phase

• Two Options
• Paper edit
• Group looks at the footage and decides what to
  keep/ delete
• If doable, review footage immediately builds
  ownership and interest.
• Group edits around a computer with appropriate
  software
• Positive inclusive lives up to participatory
  nature of the method. Youth exposed to editing
  software
• Down-side time-consuming

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Third Phase

• Screening the video(s)
• Consider the audience
• Community leaders
• Politicians
• Board of Directors
• Family and friends
• How many screenings and where
• Encourage participants to organize and emcee the
  screening

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Practical Considerations

• Group Size Facilitators
• Useful Tools/ Activities
• Costs and Funding
• Equipment
• Editing
• Exhibitions Screenings
• Power and Ethics
• Planning a day camp

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Group Size Facilitators

• Ideal group size is 10-12
• Two facilitators
• Project management
• Pre-development meetings important
• Technical side
• See if technical school/ university has students
• Thorough understanding of participatory research
• Safety

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Useful Tools

• Activities to Get Started
• Name Game
• Bring in favorite photo/ short family video
• Disappearing Game
• Tools to Develop Themes/ Topic
• Community Mapping Exercise
• Neighborhood/ Suburb/ Town/ County
• Discuss strengths/ weaknesses
• Continuum
• Interview one another with set questions

• Other activities for camp setting
• Self-Portraits
• Only themselves
• Using anything but themselves
• First memories
• Favorite space
• Journal
• Team-building/ energizers
• A fieldtrip to a local photographic exhibition

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Team-building/ Energizers
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Self-Portrait Activity
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Self-Portrait Activity
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Self-Portrait Activity
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First Memory
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Fieldtrip to local exhibition
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What Type of Equipment to Use?

• Photovoice
• Disposable
• Very accessible
• Limited number of photographs
• Low cost/ time consuming
• Anticipation of waiting
• Digital
• High quality
• Instant
• Many photographs
• Tripod

• Participatory Video
• Equipment checklist
• Mini DV camera
• Microphone (s)
• Tripod
• Extra batteries if no electrical outlet
• Flipchart paper for Storyboard
• Rain location, if outside

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Editing

• Participatory Video
• Facilitate a paper edit
• View footage and group decides what to keep/
  delete
• Chooses background music and other graphics
• Editing Suite

• Photovoice
• No editing
• Adobe Photoshop or other editing program

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Exhibitions Screenings

• Discuss potential change early on
• Set realistic expectations
• Encourage involvement of community leaders at
  early stage
• Give clear instructions as what youd like
  invited guests to do
• Prepare group for questions and responses by
  audience
• Involve youth in preparation
• Determine your venue(s)
• Equipment needs projector, microphone

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Funding

• Rent vs. Purchase Equipment
• Once off project, a pilot project or long-term
• Spent 1,000 on four digital cameras with memory
  sticks
• Area business - sponsor a camera
• Rented video equipment
• Supplies
• Flip chart paper, paper, pens, construction
  paper, notebooks
• Recording tapes, DVDs, extra batteries

• Exhibition Screenings
• Size of exhibition/ length of video
• Spent 1,000 for 50 photographs foam mounted
• Copies of DVDs
• Refreshments
• Facilitators
• What to charge participants?
• Grants
• Adobe Youth Voices

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Evaluation

• Evaluation of the process not strong
• The three phases and overall guidance
  participants asked
• What would I not change
• What I would change
• Discussion points
• Open to other methods

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Power Ethics

• What responsibilities does one
  have when using a camera?
• What is an acceptable way to
  approach someone when
  you want to photograph or video them?
• What types of situations or
  images would you want to
  avoid capturing?
• What happens to the photographs/ videos
  after the project?

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Points to Ponder

• Gaining consent/ permission
• Intrusion into ones private space
• True but embarrassing facts
• Placing someone in a false light
• Making profit at someone elses expense

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Planning A Day Camp

• Hit the ground running
• Have a Plan B i.e. what if it rains the week of
  your camp
• Hold informational meeting prior to camp to
  discuss objectives and expectations plus
  logistics
• Limit technical training maximize learn by
  doing
• Complete the first two phases during camp
• Exhibition/ screening will require additional
  meetings
• Keep participants in mind
• Length and timing of activities
• Day camp Give homework
• Schedule breaks, energizers and keep it fun
• Factor in evaluation time
• Remember safety and ethical concerns

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Additional Resources

• www.photovoice.com
• www.photovoice.org
• www.insightshare.org (NGO in Oxford, England
  doing Participatory Video)
• Kay, A. (2000) Art and community development The
  role the arts have in regenerating communities.
  Community Development Journal, 35 (4) 414-424.
• Wang, C.C., M.A. Burris, and X. Yueping (1996)
  Chinese village women as visual anthropologists
  A participatory approach to reaching
  policymakers, Social Science Medicine 42 (10)
  1391-1400.
• Wang, C.C. (1999) Photovoice A participatory
  action research strategy applied to womens
  health, Journal of Womens Health 8 (2) 185-192.
• Wang, C.C., J.L. Cash, and L.S. Powers (2000) Who
  knows the streets as well as the homeless?
  Promoting personal and community action through
  Photovoice, Health Promotion Practice 1 (1)
  81-89.
• Wang, C.C. and Y.A. Redwood-Jones (2001).
  Photovoice ethics Perspectives from Flint
  Photovoice, Health Education Behavior 28 (5)
  560-572.
• Wang, C.C., S. Morrel-Samuels, P.M. Hutchison, L.
  Bell, R.M. Pestronk (2004a) Flint Photovoice
  Community Building Amount Youths, Adults and
  Policy-makers, American Journal of Public Health
  94 (6) 911-914.
• White, S. (Ed) (2003) Participatory video Images
  that transform and empower, (pp. 63-101). New
  Delhi Sage Publications.
• Google participatory video for additional
  resources.

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Thank you

• Contact
• Julie Tritz
• julietritz_at_gmail.com

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Picture This A Snapshot of Health in
Californiacourtesy of www.photovoice.com

• Location Co. Contra Costa, San Francisco Bay
  area
• Who was Involved?
• Contra Costa County Health Department
• 60 participants recruited from selected areas
• Objective
• Enable people to depict their
  perceptions of their strengths and
  concerns
• Increase their collective knowledge through group
  discussion
• Educate other community leaders about issues that
  emerged

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It may not look like they serve great food here,
but they do. You can come here and see the same
old faces. It is a community spot where people
get together and respect each other.
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This is a picture of a park behind my house. I
don't trust my kids going there. There are
bottles and trash. The signs went up last summer,
supposedly the city has no more money to take
care of the park.
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People died on this highwaythis is Highway 4.
Last week a mother and her little boy got
killed. This is a major highway here and the city
is too cheap to make it two lanes each way.
Someone died here because someone won't fix the
road.
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What did they do with photos?

• Education/ Disseminate
• Community health fair
• Exhibition at the Co. Health Department
• Invited exhibition at state-wide conference