Analyzing Photos in Photovoice Studies
by Janet Salmons, PhD, Research Community Manager for Sage Research Methods Community
How can you analyze and interpret photographs generated by participants?
Researchers using photovoice ask participants to share their observations and experiences using photographs, usually together with written notes. This collection of open-access articles describe analysis of images collected using photovoice or other participatory methods.
Brown, A., Spencer, R., McIsaac, J.-L., & Howard, V. (2020). Drawing Out Their Stories: A Scoping Review of Participatory Visual Research Methods With Newcomer Children. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406920933394
Abstract. Researchers are increasingly using participatory visual methods (PVM) to gain a deeper understanding of newcomer children’s experiences, sense of identity, relationships, needs, strengths, and aspirations. By taking photos, producing digital stories, creating maps, drawing, sculpting, and other visual-based practices, children can help us understand how they navigate their complex worlds. We conducted a scoping review to explore what is known about participatory visual research with newcomer children. We searched nine databases, screened 692 articles, and included 21 articles for synthesis and analysis. Five common and connected areas were identified as important for consideration when envisioning, planning, and conducting this type of research with newcomer children: PVM provides an opportunity for children to communicate complex feelings and disrupt deficit discourse; participation in PVM research is highly dependent on varying cultural, economic, and relational factors; providing a range and choice of data collection activities permits deeper engagement and higher quality data; PVM can enhance meaningful engagement, reduce power asymmetry, and engender confidence and self-awareness; developing and sustaining trusted relationships are integral to the research process. The review reveals the need for more researcher reflexivity with an explicit attention to assumptions, values, and ethical considerations and suggests opportunities for researchers to better ensure newcomer children can share and shape their own stories.
Burles, M., & Thomas, R. (2014). “I Just Don’t Think There’s any other Image that Tells the Story like [This] Picture Does”: Researcher and Participant Reflections on the Use of Participant-Employed Photography in Social Research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 185–205. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691401300107
Abstract. The incorporation of visual forms of expression has become common in qualitative research over the past two decades, with participant-employed photography being most prevalent. Visual methods such as photovoice have been used in community-based studies and with individuals to explore their lived experiences, particularly because of their participatory nature. Despite widespread support for visual approaches in existing research, there has been insufficient attention paid to how photography can enhance understanding of the phenomenon under study. Additionally, the existing literature is somewhat bereft of discussion of what individuals think about their participation in studies that incorporate participant-employed photography, or researchers' perspectives of carrying out this type of research. In this article, we describe a photovoice study carried out with young adult women affected by serious illness and provide examples of participants' photographs to illustrate how participant-employed photography can enhance the depth of research data. Specifically, the examples highlight how the photographs enriched participants' verbal descriptions of their lived experiences, which generated a better understanding of their personal embodied realities. We also discuss the young adult women's inclusion of previously taken photographs and reflections on their participation in the study. Finally, we examine the need to consider the intended audience of photographs, and specific ethical and methodological considerations for researchers contemplating the incorporation of participant-employed photography. In doing so, we provide insight into the advantages and challenges of photo-methods, which can inform other researchers contemplating the incorporation of participant-employed photography into social research.
Capous-Desyllas, M., & Bromfield, N. F. (2018). Using an Arts-Informed Eclectic Approach to Photovoice Data Analysis. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917752189
Abstract. Arts-informed approaches in qualitative research are gaining more recognition as being a critical research approach in the social sciences. Using arts in research is most commonly seen in the data collection process and in data representation, however, very little is written about how to use arts-informed approaches in data analysis. There are no “how-to” guides and researchers who engage in photovoice research often implement traditional qualitative methods for analyzing their data. The purpose of this article is to merge creativity with rigor to illustrate alternative means to analyze photovoice research data. This article serves as a practical and systematic guide for interpreting photographic and interview transcript data from photovoice projects. Various tables illustrate organizational strategies, and collages serve as a metaphor for the analysis process and themes. The benefits of using arts-informed analysis methods include cross-disciplinary study, innovative ways to interpret data, enhancement of trustworthiness and rigor, and building creative mediums as a form of knowledge.
Dutton, S., Davison, C. M., Malla, M., Bartels, S., Collier, K., Plamondon, K., & Purkey, E. (2019). Biographical Collage as a Tool in Inuit Community-Based Participatory Research and Capacity Development. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406919877307
Abstract. As a method in arts-based qualitative research, the collage technique has been previously utilized for data generation, elicitation, analysis, and presentation of results. Collage has also been used as a self-reflective, development exercise within community-based research due to its abstract and creative self-exploratory style. Although previously used in research with a variety of populations, there is limited evidence of applying the collage technique with First Nation, Inuit, or Métis peoples, even though many other arts-based methods, such as photovoice, have been used. This article describes the use of biographical collage as part of a community-based research project in a northern Canadian Inuit community. The technique was used as an exercise for building leadership capacity, as an elicitation technique in cross-cultural qualitative interviews, and as a decolonizing process in community-based participatory research. With the description of an in-depth example, this article showcases many benefits of using the collage technique when engaging in cross-cultural community-based research with Inuit.
Gerstenblatt, P. (2013). Collage Portraits as a Method of Analysis in Qualitative Research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 12(1), 294–309. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691301200114
Abstract. This article explores the use of collage portraits in qualitative research and analysis. Collage portraiture, an area of arts-based research (ABR), is gaining stature as a method of analysis and documentation in many disciplines. This article presents a method of creating collage portraits to support a narrative thematic analysis that explored the impact of participation in an art installation construction. Collage portraits provide the opportunity to include marginalized voices and encourage a range of linguistic and non-linguistic representations to articulate authentic lived experiences. Other potential benefits to qualitative research are cross-disciplinary study and collaboration, innovative ways to engage and facilitate dialogue, and the building and dissemination of knowledge.
Holm, G. (2008). Photography as a Performance. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 9(2). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-9.2.394
Abstract. This is a study of photography as performance and as an ethnographic research and dissemination method. This project was part of a qualitative research methods course where doctoral students learned to collect and analyze visual data as well as what happens when they engage in a study of their own lives using photography as the main tool. Photographs, taken by the students, with short titles, constituted the only data. Analysis of the photographs without any text proved to be difficult. Written statements in addition to the titles complementing the photographs would have helped in creating the context for understanding the photographs and thereby more clearly communicating the intent of the photographers. The results indicate that an ethnography study based only on photographs would not be possible. Photography needs to be used together with other kinds of data. However, the making and presentation of the photographs allowed the students to construct and perform visually their identities as doctoral students.
Mark, G., & Boulton, A. (2017). Indigenising Photovoice: Putting Māori Cultural Values Into a Research Method. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 18(3). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-18.3.2827
Abstract. In this article, we discuss Indigenous epistemology that ensures research is inclusive of Māori cultural values, such as collectivity and storytelling. We explain an adapted photovoice methodology used in research investigating Māori (the Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa/New Zealand) patient's perspectives on rongoāMāori (traditional Māori healing) and primary health care. Traditional photovoice theoretical frameworks and methodology were modified to allow Māori participants to document and communicate their experiences of health and the health services they utilised. Moreover, we describe the necessity for cultural adaptation of the theoretical framework and methodology of photovoice to highlight culturally appropriate research practice for Māori.
Switzer S, Flicker S. Visualizing DEPICT: A Multistep Model for Participatory Analysis in Photovoice Research for Social Change. Health Promotion Practice. 2021;22(2_suppl):50S-65S. doi:10.1177/15248399211045017
Abstract. As a critical narrative intervention, photovoice invites community members to use photography to identify, document, and discuss issues in their communities. The method is often employed with projects that have a social change mandate. Photovoice may help participants express issues that are difficult to articulate, create tangible and meaningful research products for communities, and increase feelings of ownership. Despite being hailed as a promising participatory method, models for how to integrate diverse stakeholders feasibly, collaboratively, and rigorously into the analytic process are rare. The DEPICT model, originally developed to collaboratively analyze textual data, enhances rigor by including multiple stakeholders in the analysis process. We share lessons learned from Picturing Participation, a photovoice project exploring engagement in the HIV sector, to describe how we adapted DEPICT to collaboratively analyze participant-generated images and narratives across multiple sites. We highlight the following stages: dynamic reading, engaged codebook development, participatory coding, inclusive reviewing and summarizing of categories, and collaborative analysis and translation, and we discuss how participatory analysis is compatible with creative, interactive dissemination outputs such as exhibitions, presentations, and workshops. The benefits of Visualizing DEPICT include feelings of increased ownership by community researchers and participants, enhanced rigor, and sophisticated knowledge translation approaches that honor multiple forms of knowing and community leadership. The potential challenges include navigating team capacity and resources, transparency and confidentiality, power dynamics, data overload, and streamlining “messy” analytic processes without losing complexity or involvement. Throughout, we offer recommendations for designing participatory visual analysis processes that are connected to critical narrative intervention and social change aims.
Trevenen-Jones, A. (Ann), Cho, M. J., Thrivikraman, J., & Vicherat Mattar, D. (2020). Snap-Send-Share-Story: A Methodological Approach to Understanding Urban Residents’ Household Food Waste Group Stories in The Hague (Netherlands). International Journal of Qualitative Methods. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406920981325
Abstract. Rich understandings of the phenomenon, urban household food waste (HFW), are critical to realizing the vision of sustainable, inclusive human settlement. In 2018/19, an exploratory study of HFW perceptions and practices of a diversity of urban residents, was conducted in the Bezuidenhout neighborhood, The Hague (Netherlands). Nineteen participants, communicating in one of three languages, as per their preference, participated through-out this visually enhanced study. The sequential “Snap-Send-Share-Story” qualitative, participatory action research (PAR) inspired methodology, employed in the study, is introduced in this paper. Focus groups (“Story”) which resourced and followed photovoice individual interviews (“Snap-Send-Share”) are principally emphasized. Three focus groups were conducted viz. Dutch (n = 7), English (n = 7) and Arabic (n = 5), within a narrative, photo elicitation style. Explicit and tacit, sensitive, private and seemingly evident yet hard to succinctly verbalize interpretations of HFW—shared and contested—were expressed through group stories. Participants accessed a stream of creativity, from photographing HFW in the privacy of their homes to co-constructing stories in the social research space of focus groups. Stories went beyond the content of the photographs to imagine zero HFW. This approach encouraged critical interaction, awareness of HFW, reflexive synthesis of meaning and deliberations regard social and ecological action.
Wang, Q., & Hannes, K. (2020). Toward a More Comprehensive Type of Analysis in Photovoice Research: The Development and Illustration of Supportive Question Matrices for Research Teams. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406920914712
Abstract. In this article, we present a comprehensive approach to analysis to assist researchers in conducting and analyzing photovoice studies. A screening of primary studies in four systematic reviews focusing on photovoice research revealed that the focus of analysis of researchers is the narrative provided with the photos from the participants, which undermines the potential of the photos themselves to provide meaning. In addition, the analytical effort of photovoice researchers is often limited to the interpretive phase in their projects. The question matrices we developed facilitate photovoice researchers who aim to give more weight to photos as an interpretive medium and wish to extend their analytical lens to different phases of a research cycle. They focus our analytical attention on three different sites—site of production, site of photo, and site of audiencing, and three different modalities—technological modality, compositional modality, and social modality. The matrices are designed to present an overview of the important dimensions that researchers might need to take into account when conducting photovoice research studies. We provide relevant examples to illustrate the potential risks and benefits of the analytical choices we make. Photovoice researchers should increase their awareness of the impact of our choices on the analytical process and avoid the analytical strategies that may disempower participants and reproduce existing power relationships.
More Sage Research Methods Community posts about using images, photography and video in research
Look at the choices of video methods made by authors of four research articles.