Photo Interview

Photo interviews are research method which use photos and other visual prompts to guide the dialogue between a participant and interviewer. The photos can explore personal, social, or environmental themes, often revealing emotions, associations, and meanings that might be difficult to access through verbal questions alone. In biodiversity-focused projects, photo interviews can be especially useful for connecting everyday experience to broader ecological concerns. Within the PLANET4B project, the method was applied in a case study on Swiss attitudes towards agricultural biodiversity, exploring how faith shapes biodiversity decisions and examining how farmers’ religious or value-based beliefs influence both farming practices and environmentally oriented food consumption.

In this module Ghezal Sabir explains how Photo Interview was used within PLANET4B, in this video she introduces the case study:

Key Features

Participants:

• This method is commonly conducted 1 on 1, between the interviewer and interviewee
• Photo elicitation can be conducted with more than one interviewee, either in pairs or small groups where participants respond to the same image, event, or place, or in a focus group setting that brings together people with different perspectives

Timeframe:

• The timeframe of a photo interview project depends on the number of participants and the intended depth of the interviews. Sufficient time should be set aside for preparing interview themes or guiding questions, recruiting participants, conducting the interviews, and completing transcription and analysis
• Participants should be given adequate time to take or select their photographs before the interview. A minimum of 1 weeks' notice is generally recommended to allow them to reflect on the task and prepare
• There are no fixed rules on the number or length of interviews, however you should respect for participants’ time and capacity to contribute.

Budget and Materials:

Photo interview can be a low-cost method, however you might want to budget for the following:

• Photography equipment, participants might be able to take photos using their own devices (phones or cameras), however where this is not possible, you will need to provide cameras that can be borrowed for the project
• Display materials, if participants wish to exhibit their photos, budget for printing and presentation. Including frames, foam boards, or digital screens
• Travel costs, either your own travel to the interview site or reimbursement for participants’ travel expenses if needed.
• Participant information and consent forms, information sheets and ethical consent forms to ensure participants understand the purpose of the project and how their contributions will be used
• Gifts, depending on the nature of your project and what has been ethically approved, you may wish to offer small tokens of appreciation to participants for their involvement

Skills Needed:

• Active listening, the ability to listen carefully and attentively, allowing participants to guide the discussion and expand on their own meanings
• Open questioning, skill in framing open, non-leading questions that invite reflection and interpretation of the photographs
• Facilitation, capacity to create a safe and comfortable atmosphere where participants feel able to share personal views or experiences
• Ethical awareness, sensitivity to issues of consent, confidentiality, and ownership of both the photographs and the narratives that accompany them
• Flexibility, readiness to follow the participant’s perspective, adapting to unexpected themes or directions in the conversation
• Analytical thinking, ability to connect insights from the discussion with wider research aims, while respecting the integrity of participants’ accounts
• Technical familiarity, basic knowledge of photography and digital tools, ensuring that images can be collected, stored, and displayed appropriately