1
Realities Toolkit #
Using Participatory Visual Methods
Naomi Richards, University of Sheffield
October 
Introduction
This toolkit aims to share our experiences of using a variety of participatory visual
methods in a project designed to challenge stereotypes of older women, called
Representing Self – Representing Ageing (funded by the Economic and Social
Research Council [Res-356-25-0040]. See: www.representing-ageing.com for more
details).
What are participatory visual methods?
You might want to consider using visual methods if you want your research
participants to show you how they perceive the world, rather than just tell you in
a focus group, interview or survey. In order to make visual methods participatory,
you have to be prepared to hand over some control over the image-making to
research participants themselves. You will also need to think about ways of
sustaining their involvement in as many different aspects of the research project
as possible. The term ‘participatory’ can be criticised for being nebulous,
incorporating everything from full-blown action research (where a group of
people approach researchers directly with a proposal for research and are
involved in every stage of the research process and directly benefit from the
outcomes) to a single interview in which a person is expected to ‘participate’
through dialogue. The looseness of the term is in part responsible for what some
have called a ‘tick box approach to participation.’ At a basic level, a participatory
approach should offer an alternative to a prescriptive, ‘top down’ model of
research where research subjects are asked to give very specific forms of data in a
prescribed format with clear limits put on their involvement. Our view is that a
project can only truly be considered participatory if the values which underpin it
are about involving research subjects in as many stages of the research as possible,
offering them the opportunity to direct the research as well as influence the
Realities toolkit #17: Participatory Visual Methods
October 2011 2
treatment of the data and the outputs. Participation should be built into the
design of the project from the start as it will affect how the project is run and has
time and budget implications. Tagging it on at the end as an afterthought won’t
work and is likely to appear tokenistic.
Visual methods can actually aid participation because images are often more
accessible to people than dense academic text, and they also have a novelty
factor which is likely to keep people stimulated and engaged in the research
process for longer. There are a range of visual methods which can be used:
photography; painting and drawing; sculpting; filming – any method, in fact,
which produces data in material visual form. Not all of these methods will be
suitable for every individual or group you choose to work with, so they should be
tailored to suit the needs of those involved. If people do not have experience of
using the chosen medium, they should be given guidance and support. In the
Representing Self – Representing Ageing (RSRA) project, we used three methods
in three different workshop series: art therapy; photo therapy; and community
arts. I will describe these in turn, highlighting the ways participation was
enhanced in each.
The art therapy workshop series involved two hour weekly sessions over 8 weeks
where self-selected older women were invited to discuss their views about ageing
and respond to those discussions by producing art works (sculptures, drawings
and paintings, textiles, collage, photos) which were then subject to further
discussion in the group. There was no expectation of artistic ability, only a stated
interest in creating new images of old age. In an art elicitation project such as this,
facilitation will be necessary to maintain group focus on the research themes and
offer rudimentary instruction in the use of the art materials. While themes did
arise organically in the group discussions it would be advisable to have some
more structured exercises in reserve in case ideas dry up. The therapeutic element
to this workshop series encouraged participants to feel personally invested in the
process and its outputs.
The photo therapy workshop series involved 5 day long sessions also with a group
of self-selected older women. The facilitator employed to run this workshop
series had devised this method over a number of years (cf Martin and Spence
(1986)), although there are likely to be variations on a theme (cf Craig (2009) for
some basic ideas). These sessions were highly structured and precisely timed and
discrete activities were set. For example: asking people to bring in an object to
introduce themselves to the group; asking them to create photo-diaries as
homework; and instructing them to work in pairs to ‘re-enact’ scenes which
might have occurred in the past, or scenes which might occur in the future in
front of the camera. Both these therapeutic methods – art therapy and photo
therapy - had strong participatory elements in that the women were involved in
an intense process of self-reflection over a number of sessions.
Both facilitators were trained therapists. They were employed to use therapeutic
approaches to facilitate the women’s image-making, rather than to offer therapy
to the participants. You would need to hire someone who had the relevant
therapeutic training and facilitation skills if you wanted to employ these methods.
Realities toolkit #17: Participatory Visual Methods
October 2011 3
FigureFigureFigureFigure 1111---- Photo Diary Images (©Photo Diary Images (©Photo Diary Images (©Photo Diary Images (© Look atLook atLook atLook at Me project, University of SheffieldMe project, University of SheffieldMe project, University of SheffieldMe project, University of Sheffield))))
The women were encouraged to direct the image-making using their own
creative skills and imagination with only very broad research themes to guide
them. The resultant images were revealing of participants’ personal experiences
and reflections on a sensitive topic. After the workshops, participants’ images
were immediately available for discussion and interpretation among the groups
and they could, as groups, reflect on the process of having made them. The
interpretations offered at this stage fed directly into the analysis conducted by
the researchers later.
In the third workshop series, an established community arts organisation was
commissioned to use its long-standing local connections to recruit two preexisting
groups of older women. Professional photographers were then recruited
to work with these groups. Here, participants were not as interested in making
images themselves but were happy to work alongside a professional artist and
develop ideas in collaboration with them. Sustaining participants’ interest in the
research is paramount to securing their long-standing involvement. Enabling
participation is not always just about ‘handing over control’, which many
participants would find daunting or requiring too much effort. It is also about
listening to expressions of need, interest and competence and tailoring activities
to bring out the best in the group. The arts organisation introduced additional
layers of involvement in order to give the groups a sense of ownership over the
project. Each group helped to write the photographer’s brief and were actively
involved in deciding what form the workshops would take. Two group
representatives also sat on the photographer’s interview panel and were thus
instrumental in the selection of the professional photographer. At the end of the
workshop series, two local exhibitions were held to which all participants were
invited and each woman was given a certificate and a framed print of their
favourite image.
Realities toolkit #17: Participatory Visual Methods
October 2011 4
FigureFigureFigureFigure 2222 ---- Community Exhibition (©Fiona OliverCommunity Exhibition (©Fiona OliverCommunity Exhibition (©Fiona OliverCommunity Exhibition (©Fiona Oliver ---- www.fionaoliverphotography.co.uk)www.fionaoliverphotography.co.uk)www.fionaoliverphotography.co.uk)www.fionaoliverphotography.co.uk)
SummarySummarySummarySummary
Participation is a nebulous term, but at its core is a commitment to involving research
subjects in as many stages of the research as possible and presenting them with the
opportunity to direct the research as well as influence the treatment of the data and the
outputs. When using visual methods, letting research subjects chose their own visual
medium (photography, painting and drawing, sculpting, filming) and allowing their
imagination free rein is one way to enhance participation. Other people might flounder
without a structure or a stimulus so the views of participants should be solicited at the
outset and the image-making sessions tailored accordingly. Participants’ interpretation of
the images they produce, as well as those produced by/of others in the project, should
also be solicited and incorporated into the analysis where possible.
Practical ways of enhancing participation
Whatever type of image-making sessions you are facilitating, you will need to do
a considerable amount of advance planning and think about challenges which
might arise. Here is a brief checklist:
• Creative thinking does not come naturally to everyone. Do you want to see
what visual representations ‘ordinary’ people can create when given the
chance, or do you want to see what artists or people with demonstrable
artistic skills can create?
• If you chose to recruit people who have no previous experience of imagemaking,
you will have to spend time at the start making them feel
confident about the different media on offer for them to use. This means
that you will have to be very familiar with all the technical aspects of the
available equipment in order to be able to instruct others!
• Think about involving research subjects in the recruitment of the
facilitator/ professional artist.
• Introduce the research questions. Outline the participatory values which
the research team subscribes to and open up channels for participants to
give feedback as you go along. Take note of any feedback and try and act
on it.
Realities toolkit #17: Participatory Visual Methods
October 2011 5
• Lay down ground rules about respecting confidentiality in order to create a
safe space for the production of any personal and/or revealing images.
• If you are going to hand out cameras and/or video cameras then think
about how you are going to store and download the media files
afterwards.
• You may or may not have time to give a full course of tuition in the various
media on offer. If the quality of the outputs is not paramount, ask
participants to focus on coming up with a concept rather than focusing on
its perfect execution.
• If people are in need of stimulation you could have a range of prompts in
reserve e.g. showing a particularly provocative image and asking them to
respond to it, or asking people to work in pairs to work on themes
collaboratively.
• Regularly review images in order to prompt interpretation from
participants themselves. This could be done at the end of each session, or,
if the photos need to be developed, at the beginning of the next.
• Keep a close eye on people who may be struggling to express themselves
visually as they may need additional encouragement. Suggest that they try
different media. Don’t leave them floundering as they may drop out.
• At the end of the workshop/data collection period, make sure participants
have clear expectations of ‘next steps’ – both in terms of what the research
team will be doing with the data and how their involvement in the project
will continue/ develop.
Sustaining participation
Once you have collected your visual data, you can maintain participants’
involvement in various ways. This will depend on what you plan to do with the
visual materials e.g. upload them to a website, show them at conferences, display
them in a book. In the RSRA project, we mounted a large city centre exhibition
where a selection of images from all three workshop series were displayed.
Participants were involved in the planning stages via a day long meeting. When
proposing to show images of or by research participants in a public venue,
particularly in their home city, it is vital that participants are given an opportunity
to say how they want their images displayed so that they do not feel they, or
their work, are being misrepresented. In our project, for example, some
participants expressed concern about the juxtaposition of their image with other
images which had a very different meaning. Issues such as these need to be
negotiated sensitively. It might be an idea to revisit consent forms at this juncture
to make sure people are still happy for their images to be shown.
Although we wanted all voices to be heard, reaching a consensus about the
format and ‘look’ of an exhibition with 41 participants with widely differing
views and different levels of experience of mounting an exhibition was
exceedingly difficult. It was deemed that a fully participatory exhibition would
Realities toolkit #17: Participatory Visual Methods
October 2011 6
have been very difficult to manage and ultimately dominated by those with the
strongest views, the most experience, and the most time on their hands. Setting
up a steering committee with nominated representatives is one option to
consider. In the RSRA project, a curator was employed in order to bring a sense of
cohesion to the exhibition as a whole and give it a professional look. We
continued to consult with participants in the build up to the exhibition, offering
the women the opportunity to write or amend the labels accompanying their
images, inviting them to get involved in press related activities and to attend a
private viewing with their friends and relatives after the exhibition was installed.
Sustaining participation through the data analysis and dissemination phases of a
project creates additional work for the researchers as consultation and capacity
building always takes time. At a practical level, additional layers of involvement
should be built into budgets and timescales at the outset. If you want participants
to speak at conferences about their images, or contribute to publications, then
considerable training may be required. You may find, as we did, that while
participants are keen to roll up their sleeves and create the images, they are less
interested in the management/co-ordination side of disseminating them, as long
as they feel that their work is being respected and their opinions heard.
SummarySummarySummarySummary
Post data collection, think about other ways of continuing to involve people and keeping
them up-to-date and interested in the research e.g. putting on an exhibition of the
images produced; inviting participants to give interviews to journalists; involving
participants in academic outputs like conference papers and journal articles.
Potential benefits of using participatory visual methods
Making a research project fully participatory is both time-consuming and costly
and creates additional layers of communication and consultation for those
managing the project. This should not be done solely as a ‘tick box’ exercise.
However, it is not an ‘all or nothing’ scenario and research projects using visual
methods can be participatory in some areas and seek to retain control over others.
As long as you are clear about which areas participants can influence and which
they cannot from the outset, then you cannot be accused of raising expectations
or failing to deliver on participatory goals. The main point is that unless you
perceive that there is value in participation, it is likely to become a point of
contention very quickly when you realise the additional administrative layers it
presents. Here are some of the potential benefits of using participatory visual
methods:
• Visual outputs produced by participants can be analysed for what they
reveal about the way people choose to represent themselves to others and
how they identify what is significant about their lives. This is a different
type of data to that produced when a researcher takes images or video
footage of research subjects, where it is the researcher’s ‘eye’ or
interpretation of the subject’s world which is paramount. It is also different
from working with pre-existing images, for example, a family archive, as
Realities toolkit #17: Participatory Visual Methods
October 2011 7
these images are not created with the purposes of the research in mind but
rather are mined for their significance in relation to those themes after the
event.
• Taking a fully participatory approach takes academic research out of the
‘ivory tower’. It allows the research process to be influenced by the very
people who are providing the data on which research findings will be
based. It assumes a more equitable approach to conducting research
(although unless you are doing a very radical type of action research, it is
unlikely ever to be fully equitable).
• Giving participants a sense of ownership over the research process makes
them more likely to invest the time and energy required to make the
project a success. There is a chance that they will produce more revealing/
more heartfelt images as a result which will ultimately benefit the research
by increasing the insights gained.
• The more invested participants are in the process, the more likely they are
to accrue personal benefits. This may be through an enhanced sense of
well-being as a result of being involved, an increased interest in and
knowledge of the visual arts, or simply the opportunity it presented to
meet new people and have new experiences. The more involved
participants are in the different aspects of the research, and the more
sustained that involvement is, the increased likelihood of long-term
personal benefits for those taking part.
• If participants feel invested in the project over its duration, they may also
be more willing to continue their involvement through ‘follow-on’
activities. For example, in the RSRA project, we secured some of the
women’s involvement in an additional educational outreach project.
Conclusion
Participation is designed to counteract a ‘top down’ model of research. Visual
methods are a particularly good way of increasing and sustaining participants’
involvement in a research project because they are accessible to all and can also
be fun. Using participatory visual methods does involve relinquishing some
control over the research process and handing it to participants, so your whole
team needs to be convinced by the particular model of participation you
subscribe to and the added value to be gained from it. Participation cannot be
‘tagged on’ after the fact because additional costs and time need to be factored
in.
You should try and be realistic about which visual medium participants can
feasibly get to grips with in the time allowed and with the available technology
e.g. don’t offer video cameras if you have no way of editing the video footage
afterwards. You will need to support people in how to use or apply the various
visual techniques so they don’t feel daunted. It is important to recognise that
people often need to be enabled to participate through supportive structures
Realities toolkit #17: Participatory Visual Methods
October 2011 8
and effective communication. If participation is enabled and managed effectively,
it can have long lasting impacts on the lives of participants as well as improving
the quality of the research data.
References
Craig, C. (2009) Exploring the self through photography. London: Jessica Kingsley.
Martin, R and Spence, J. (1986). Photo therapy: New portraits for old. In: Putting myself
in the picture: A political, personal and photographic autobiography. London: Camden
Press. 172-193.
Feedback welcome!Feedback welcome!Feedback welcome!Feedback welcome! If you have any comments on this toolkit or if you
can tell us how you have used it in your research or teaching please do
drop us a line at realities@manchester.ac.uk and let us know.
Realities is part of the Morgan Centre for the Study of Relationships and Personal Life at
the University of Manchester.
Realities, Morgan Centre, Sociology, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL.
realities@manchester.ac.uk | www.manchester.ac.uk/morgancentre