Impact
Understanding the potential impacts of Photovoice can help policymakers recognise the kinds of changes it may support and how these can be integrated into planning, consultation, and decision-making. Impacts can occur at multiple levels, from individual awareness to shifts in community practice or institutional response.
Individual change involves shifts in knowledge, confidence, or values.
- Self-reflection and awareness: Taking and discussing photographs helps participants reflect on their environment, identify valued places or species, and articulate how biodiversity connects to daily life.
- Confidence and motivation: The process can strengthen people’s sense of voice and agency, enabling them to contribute to policy discussions and environmental initiatives with greater confidence.
In this video Geraldine Brown reflects on how the visual nature of Photovoice provides participants with a lasting, tangible outcome from their engagement:
Group change occurs when people share experiences and learn from one another.
- Collaboration and shared purpose: Collective discussions of images build trust and shared priorities, which can be drawn upon by councils or agencies when designing policies.
- Exchange of perspectives: The method surfaces diverse viewpoints, sparking new ideas and strengthening solidarity across communities, which helps ensure policy reflects varied needs.
Community-level change takes place through shifts in practices, norms, or local structures.
- Strengthening networks and identity: Exhibitions and group presentations can reinforce a sense of shared identity, giving policymakers clearer insight into community values and priorities.
- Catalysing action: The relationships and ideas generated through Photovoice may develop into campaigns, events, or projects that councils can recognise, support, or align with wider strategies.
Policy and societal change emerges when Photovoice extends beyond the immediate group to influence institutions and wider publics.
- Raising visibility and challenging narratives: Public exhibitions or reports can highlight overlooked concerns, prompting dialogue on biodiversity, climate, and environmental planning.
Informing decision-making: Photovoice outputs provide concrete evidence of community perspectives that can guide council strategies, consultations, and programme design. - Building lasting connections: Projects often establish sustained relationships between communities and institutions, creating channels for ongoing dialogue and collaboration.
Measuring Impact:
For more detailed guidance on measuring change, see the Impact Module. Three useful techniques include:
- Participant reflection tools – Encourage participants to keep process journals, video diaries, or sketchbooks while taking photos to track shifts in confidence, awareness, or advocacy skills.
- Post-project co-reflection workshops – Facilitate group sessions where participants review their collective photo stories, discuss changes in relationships, and identify any shared actions or initiatives sparked by the project.
- Audience feedback – Use comment walls, digital surveys, or quick interviews at exhibitions or community forums to capture how viewers respond to the photo stories and whether the images influence their attitudes or intentions.
In this video Geraldine Brown explains how Photovoice creates space for reflection and greater understanding of people’s lives and perspectives:
Adaptions
Photovoice can been adapted in many ways to suit different research aims, group dynamics, and thematic contexts. These adaptations extend the core method while retaining its emphasis on participation, reflection, and visual expression. Possible adaptions to the method include:
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 Photovoice
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 Photovoice
Rather than working individually, participants work in small teams to plan, take, and select photographs together.
5. Environmental or place-based Photovoice
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 Photovoice
Combine photographs with other media such as audio recordings, mapping exercises, or video clips.
