A Few Of My Favourite Thingsa photovoice exhibition by mothers from the Supported Learning Project
What Is Photovoice?Photovoice uses photography as a means of accessing other people's worlds and making those worlds accessible to others. It involves giving people cameras and using the pictures they take to stimulate a process of storytelling through which meaning is given to the images by relating them to lived experience. Photovoice puts people in charge of how they represent themselves and how they depict their lives. Photovoice is all about point-of-viewness: it sets out to capture and convey the point of view of the person holding the camera. Photovoice invites us to look at the world through the same lens as the photographer and to share the story the picture holds for the person who clicked the shutter. The Supported Learning ProjectThe Supported Learning Project provided personal support and development in self-advocacy to mothers with learning difficulties. Why Photovoice?Photovoice offered a new way of engaging with mothers in the Supported Learning Project; one that enabled the mothers to define themselves in terms of the things they most valued in their lives. Photovoice as a method elevates the mothers to the status of experts in the analysis of their own lives instead of merely making their lives available for analysis by an 'expert'. Photovoice fitted the self-advocacy aims of the Supported Learning Project by giving priority to the mothers' views of what was most important to them while, at the same time, challenging prejudicial views of them as different mums. Who Took Part?Sixteen mothers volunteered to take part in the project. All were given a Kodak disposable camera loaded with a 39-exposure colour film. Some had never owned or used a camera before. Thirteen mothers returned their films for developing. Of the remainder, one mother had her photos developed herself but chose not to show them to anyone; one said her camera had got broken but declined the offer of a replacement; and one did not return to the group after taking the camera. PracticalitiesAll the mothers were asked to photograph people, places and things that 'are important to you'. No other guidance was given. When they returned their film for developing, each mother was asked if a duplicate copy could be processed: one for them to keep and one for the project. No-one refused. The mothers were given an opportunity to look through their photos on their own first and to remove any that they did not wish anyone else to see. The majority of mothers censored one or two (often snaps that had not turned out well or, for some reason, photographs of their partners). Each mother's album was discussed with her individually: to listen to the stories behind the photographs, to learn why these particular shots had been taken and to understand the significance they had for her. The mothers were also invited to share their photographs with the group as a basis for getting to know each other better and learning more about the shared concerns and common threads that characterised their lives. ProblemsThe project took longer than anticipated. The mothers set out with tremendous enthusiasm fully expecting to return their films for developing within a week or two. In the event, it was six months before some of them finished their film. It now seems clear, with hindsight, that 39 exposures are too many (certainly for this group of people). The mothers found it difficult to use up the film quickly so put the camera aside and then kept forgetting to go back to it without regular prompting. Once the films had been developed, a Wednesday meeting of the Supported Learning Project was set aside to share and discuss everyone's photographs. The meeting was flagged well in advance. All mothers who had taken part in the project were also sent personal letters reminding them of the event and encouraging them to attend. On the day, only 6 of the 13 mothers showed up. Having got their own photos, and having talked about them one-to-one with the project facilitator, many seemed not to have enough interest in viewing other people's snaps to give time to the task. The most serious problem might perhaps have been foreseen. With this website in mind, the mothers were asked if they would be willing to have a selection of their chosen photographs posted on the Internet. They declined. Whilst perfectly willing to show all their photographs to other mothers and workers in the Supported Learning Project, they did not wish to open up their lives to the scrutiny of strangers or unknown others. A melange of unvoiced reasons lurks behind this preference but a common link is the desire to avoid the limelight. There is no copyright issue here. Ownership of the photographs was explicitly shared between the mothers and the project through the tangible device of producing duplicate copies. But there is an issue of good faith. The project operated on the fundamental principle that mothers' interests and wishes always came first. This non-negotiable commitment has been honoured in putting together the photovoice gallery: the mothers' anonymity has been the top priority. Pseudonyms have been used. Only photographs without people in them or without any identifiable link back to the mothers and their families have been used. False trails have been laid where necessary to break the connection between image and identity. The result is less intimate than it might have been had we been allowed to draw on the full library of images the project produced. Even so, the photovoice gallery still presents a visual challenge to the stamp of otherness so often affixed to mothers with learning difficulties. A fuller discussion of the photovoice project and a detailed analysis of the results can be found in T. Booth and W. Booth, 'In the frame: photovoice and mothers with learning difficulties', Disability and Society, 18(4), June, 2003, pp. 431-442. CLICK HERE TO ENTER
|
