Planning and Defining the Project
Photovoice is typically carried out through a series of workshops, which can be held either online or in person. A central part of the method is bringing people together and encouraging active participation. The more photographers feel they have ownership of the process and have helped shape it, the more meaningful and impactful the resulting messages tend to be.
Photo question:
The starting point of Photovoice is a question that can be responded to through photography. This question can be fully co-designed by the group, or the organiser might set broad parameters and invite the group to define the specific focus. In an organisational setting, the overall theme might (e.g.) relate to supply chains, office culture, the customer journey, or resource use.
You can shape the question in a group meeting or by inviting input through an online portal or message board, with a shortlist of suggested questions. People might not respond straight away, so consider allowing anonymous suggestions or asking someone to post first to get things going.
The question should be:
- Clear: easy to understand, without lots of explanation
- Open-ended: not something that can be answered with “yes” or “no”
- Visually answerable: it should inspire people to respond through images
Training:
Training and Supporting Photographers
People within your Photovoice group might already be confident with photography, nevertheless it is worth still running a short training session on certain skills to build group dynamics, encourage peer learning and improve photo quality. This can also create an opportunity for someone in the group to share their own skills or experiences.
A basic training session might cover:
- How to use photography to tell a story (symbolism, realism, staged vs. candid images)
- Simple techniques: lighting, framing, composition, focus
- The difference between capturing a moment and conveying a message
If photographers already have experience (e.g. using smartphones regularly), you can shift the focus to more creative or advanced techniques or offer optional resources for those who want to experiment further. Depending on your budget, you could invite a professional photographer to offer guidance or collaborate with an internal team, such as marketing or design, if those skills already exist within the organisation.
If the project involves taking photos of people or recognisable places, it is essential to cover:
- Consent: always ask before taking and using someone’s image
- Confidentiality: when and how to anonymise subjects
- Harm: do not damage a space or endanger species when taking photos
- Safety: do not put yourself or others in danger when taking photos
In this video Geraldine Brown outlines important practical and skills-based preparations for facilitators working with the Photovoice method:
Taking Photos
When you reach the stage that photographers start to respond to the question and capture content
- It’s important to give photographers as much ownership of the process as possible. Avoid steering the direction or shaping what you hope to see; step back and allow the group to develop their own ideas and interpretations.
- Photographers can also be encouraged to take photos in their own time, or you might like to organise a photography trip, depending on time and resources. For example, the trip could involve a lunchtime session around the site or a visit to a nearby park. If photographers are spread across locations this might not be practical.
- Encourage photographers to reflect on their images, share the stories behind them - thereby helping ensure accurate interpretation of the meaning behind the image for the photographer. These reflections can provide rich, textured insights that can feed into reports, exhibitions, newsletters etc., and make the wider outputs more compelling.
- Photographers could also be encouraged to keep a journal – written, voice-recorded, or drawn – as a way of noting thoughts, emotions, and emerging ideas throughout the process.
In this video Geraldine Brown describes the types of prompts used to guide participants’ photography in the PLANET4B project:
Selecting and Discussing Photos
When it comes to selecting and discussing a final set of photos, this stage can benefit from a group meeting – either online or in-person. Ask photographers to begin by selecting 3-5 of their images that best respond to the question. This helps focus discussion and avoids having too much material.
During this meeting sufficient time needs to be provided for all participants (who feel comfortable doing so) to share and explain the stories and ideas conveyed by their photos and how these relate to the research question. The conversation may be unstructured, or the facilitator can guide it by asking open-ended questions and encouraging participation. Some facilitators use the SHOWeD framework to steer the discussion, which includes questions like:
- What do you SEE here?
- What is really HAPPENING here?
- How does this relate to OUR lives?
- WHY does this concern, situation, or strength exist?
- How can we become EMPOWERED through this new understanding?
- What can we DO about it?
In this video Geraldine Brown explains why participant-led storytelling is central to the integrity of Photovoice:
Distilling the Message
Typically, in Photovoice, the images are accompanied by a description. If you are wanting to use the method to prompt a change, each photo can be linked to a single action - for example, changing something in the supply chain or workplace practices, such as switching to more sustainable tea and coffee suppliers or reviewing energy providers, or planting trees. These actions can be aligned with the company’s nature-related commitments, framed around opportunity, risk, or compliance:
- New ideas from the ground up – practical, everyday changes that can reduce environmental impact, often overlooked by formal audits.
- Opportunities to improve resource use – such as reducing energy, water, or material waste.
- Employee-led sustainability insights – offering the business a richer understanding of how environmental values are experienced and enacted across different teams or sites.
- Reputational risks – where actions on the ground do not align with public sustainability statements or brand values.
- Operational risks – such as over-reliance on fragile supply chains or inefficient use of materials and energy.
- Internal policy gaps – where environmental policies exist but are not consistently understood or implemented by staff.
- Alignment with reporting frameworks – including ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) criteria, ISO standards (International Organization for Standardisation), or frameworks like the TNFD (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures) and CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive).
You could work with photographers to distil each image into one clear message, based on an opportunity, risk, or compliance. You could also encourage them to link what the photo means to them, into a concrete goal or action for the organisation.
