Potential Impacts
Understanding the potential impacts of Photo Interview can help NGOs anticipate the kinds of changes it may support and plan for how these can be recognised and strengthened over time. Impacts can occur at multiple levels, from individual awareness to shifts in policy or institutional practice.
Intrapersonal change takes place within an individual, involving shifts in knowledge, attitudes, emotions, or skills.
- Self-reflection and personal growth: Selecting and discussing photographs encourages participants to reflect on their relationship with nature, place, or community. In biodiversity projects, this might involve noticing overlooked species, recognising local environmental pressures, or forming deeper connections with landscapes. Such reflection can increase confidence, prompt personal advocacy, or inspire new practices such as sharing knowledge with peers or adopting biodiversity-friendly habits.
- Motivation for action: The process can encourage participants to speak more openly about environmental issues, take part in community initiatives, or adapt their own behaviours in ways that support biodiversity.
Interpersonal change occurs between people, who influence and learn from one another through collaboration and dialogue.
- Collaboration and shared purpose: Sharing and interpreting images in groups can build trust, spark dialogue, and strengthen a sense of shared purpose.
- Exchange of perspectives: Photo Interviews create opportunities for participants to learn from one another’s experiences and values, which can lead to fresh ideas for collaborative activities or stronger support networks.
Community-level change involves shifts in the practices, norms, or structures of a group, organisation, or place-based network.
- Strengthening networks and identity: Exhibitions or group discussions based on photographs can reinforce shared identities, values, or goals. This may inspire new initiatives such as joint events, awareness campaigns, or community-based projects.
- Catalysing group action: Relationships built during the project can continue beyond its end, helping to sustain collaborations or form new alliances.
Wider societal and policy change happens when the influence of Photo Interview extends beyond the immediate group.
- Raising visibility and challenging narratives: Exhibitions and visual outputs can bring community perspectives into public view, helping to challenge assumptions and prompt dialogue on biodiversity and community priorities.
- Informing decision-making: When shared with NGOs, councils, or other institutions, Photo Interview outcomes can highlight community priorities and influence planning or advocacy strategies.
- Building lasting connections: The networks developed through Photo Interview, including with decision-makers, can support ongoing dialogue and create opportunities for longer-term collaboration.
In this video Ghezal Sabir reflects on the impacts of sharing photos:
Measuring Impact
- For more detailed guidance on measuring change, see the Impact Module. Three useful techniques include:
- Participant reflection tools – Ask participants to keep short notes, audio diaries, or voice recordings about their experience of being interviewed and the ideas or memories the photos prompted.
- Post-project co-reflection workshops – Bring interviewees together to reflect on what emerged through the images, how their perspectives developed, and whether the process influenced their thinking or choices.
- Audience feedback – If images and stories are shared in an exhibition or report, gather feedback through comment boards, QR-linked surveys, or brief conversations to understand what messages resonated and what actions audiences might take.
Policy or institutional change
Impact: When directed at decision-makers, photo interview projects can contribute to policy dialogue or advocacy campaigns. Impact might include changes in organisational priorities, incorporation of participant voices in planning, or specific actions taken in response to the exhibition. These outcomes are more likely when Photo interview is embedded within a longer-term strategy of engagement or lobbying.
Measuring Impact
- Monitoring if and how the issues raised are addressed in policy documents or meeting minutes
- Follow-up interviews with stakeholders or institutional partners
- Media coverage, endorsements, or formal statements triggered by the exhibition
- Case studies tracing the journey from Photo interview presentation to action take
.svg)
Adapting and Expanding Photo Interview
There are several adaptations of the Photo Interview method, each offering a different way to explore meaning, foster collaboration, and connect visual storytelling with biodiversity and place-based reflection:
1. Photo-dialogue
Participants take photographs individually, then come together in small groups to discuss common themes or tensions emerging across their images. The emphasis is placed on collective interpretation and conversation, rather than individual storytelling.
2. Participatory photo-elicitation
Instead of participants generating new images, they select existing photographs (from personal collections, or from a publicly available archive) that resonate with the project themes. These images then become prompts for storytelling, reflection, or discussion.
3. Storyboard Photo interview
Participants create series or sequences of images that tell a story, encouraging photographers to think about narrative arcs, cause and effect, and a potential action.
4. Collaborative Photo interview
Rather than working individually, participants work in small teams to plan, take, and select photographs together.
5. Environmental or place-based Photo interview
Focus specifically on documenting landscapes, ecosystems, or changes in the local environment, rather than personal experiences. This variation fits well with biodiversity, climate, and land justice projects.
6. Multimodal Photo interview
Combine photographs with other media such as audio recordings, mapping exercises, or video clips.
In this video Ghezal Sabir reflects on how the photos were transformed into a film as a further evolution of the method:
