This month photographer and writer Holly Houlton interviewed Tom Elkins, the director and CEO of PhotoVoice; a UK based non-profit organisation employing ethical photography and community engagement for social change.
Holly: Could you give us a brief outline of the history of PhotoVoice? What was the journey to arrive where you are now and how does it currently operate?
Tom: PhotoVoice was initially founded in 1999 by Anna Blackman and Tiffany Fairey. It was registered as a charity in 2003, and more recently converted into a Community Interest Company (CIC). This means we’re operating as a non-profit organisation, but able to be a bit more flexible in our approach to activities.
Since being established, we’ve run around 130 projects all over the world, all which use photography as a starting point for positive social change. We’ve developed our own unique methodology around participatory photography, learning from each project we deliver about working in partnership and providing as much support as we can to amplify often underrepresented voices and perspectives. I believe as an organisation we’ve delivered more participatory photography projects than anybody else, and we’re learning more about how it can be ethically applied each time we do.
I’ve been at PhotoVoice for a little over 10 years now and have been involved in around 40 projects, many of which I’ve directly delivered as well as working alongside academics, think tanks, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and charities to help embed participatory practices across a range of topics and approaches.
Every year is a little different as we’re not an issue-specific organisation, and we always work in partnership to help design and deliver our programmes. This means that each project is uniquely created and facilitated.
Holly: How does PhotoVoice view socially engaged photography and how it should be implemented ethically? What made you want to release your Statement of Ethical Practice for public use?
Tom: I think photography has a particular set of considerations when thinking about ethical community engagement. As audience members, we have very strong and swift responses to photography which can inform, provide evidence, challenge perspectives, or in some instances, reinforce prejudice and negativity.
Part of the power of photography is its ability to rapidly illicit a response, but that comes with a huge amount of considerations about using it responsibly; doing no harm, not exploiting or extracting, and recognising the importance of context.
There are also power dynamics at play with our approach to participatory photography which arise from the partnership models we adopt. I remember being asked during a training workshop whether it was possible to give somebody a voice, and I replied that we don’t do that; we give people a camera, and the opportunity to understand how that tool can be used for self-expression.
Being participant-led requires careful balancing of expectations from all involved, and sometimes what you end up with isn’t what you thought you’d have. There has to be space for participant voice to be the primary focus of any activity, and sometimes recognising the impact of sharing those perspectives is about considering the risks that come with it.
Our Statement of Ethical Practice is a living document which we’ve used as the starting point for all of our projects. It’s currently in its third iteration – though I’ve no doubt there will be more variants in the future as we learn more, or society and legislation changes. The latest version considers online engagement, which came from our understanding of how participatory photography could be delivered during the pandemic. It also has new sections on terminology we’ve adopted as an organisation, which is a definite evolution from our past approach.
We wanted to share this document and release it under creative commons, as we’re increasingly seeing a lot of people adopt similar approaches in their own work. I’d much rather they be done as well as possible and hopefully learn from the experience we’ve gained, so having the Statement freely available to all to be remixed and adapted felt like a positive contribution to make to the wider sector, and we hope it’s useful!
Holly: What are the biggest challenges PhotoVoice has faced on sustaining or delivering socially engaged photography practice and participatory photography in projects, training and exhibitions worldwide?
Tom: Like many small organisations, we are still feeling the impact of the post-pandemic world; for an organisation that is based on travelling and getting people together, we were acutely affected by the reduction in available work, and I think we’re still seeing some of the fallout on how community engagement is undertaken.
One of the reasons why we recently converted to a CIC was to be able to better weather the ebbs and flows of project work and its variability.
For our projects themselves, one of the biggest challenges comes from ensuring that all involved with delivery take the ethical side of things as seriously as we do. Sometimes partners might not be on the same page when it comes to community engagement and being participant led, or they may have different frameworks which they operate from for things like consent processes. That’s why having the Statement of Ethical Practice is such a useful starting point for discussing how we might proceed in developing a programme.
Holly: For my final question, I would love to know more about the idea behind the choice of blog content on PhotoVoice’s website? You have a variety of different individuals practicing ethical photography featuring, such as, Karine Versluis talking about her Stay Strong Photo Stories; a participatory photography programme which has now been carried out in Ukraine. What motivated PhotoVoice to share the work of others within this field? What do you hope audiences will take away from reading them?
Tom: We’ve always wanted to celebrate the work of photographers and photography which considers socially engaged practices, and have previously hosted a range of blog posts on a number of themes; including ethical photography projects, how photography has provided help and support for individual photographers, and considering the ethics of photographic practices. These are all available on our website.
We scaled back these submissions a few years back during a particularly busy period of project work, and I miss them! I think hearing and sharing the work with our diverse audience (which comprises arts, academia, and social change) is a great way to emphasise how ethical photography can play an important role in social change efforts.
I’m excited and hopeful that readers and members of Open Eye Gallery’s Socially Engaged Photography Network (SEPN) might want to promote and share their important work.
Text: Holly Houlton
Image: Andrew 2024 | PhotoVoice | University of Stirling | ‘Mindset, Approach, Perspective’ | Scotland
PhotoVoice works in the UK and internationally with individuals, local communities, and partner organisations, to design and deliver tailor-made participatory photography, digital storytelling and self-advocacy projects for underrepresented or issue-affected groups.
Holly Houlton is a photographer and writer based in London, UK. Holly’s work mainly explores the subjects of people and place with a particular interest in the effects they have on one another in relation to experience and time. Using a personal approach, themes of intimacy, relationship and self-reflection are applied to interpret her surrounding environments. Specific attention to detail and light attempts to draw out the perhaps otherwise unseen and stimulate emotive contemplation. Alongside her creative visual practice, she is a passionate writer on photography and during in 2020 she founded and launched Now Tell Me; a writing platform and zine dedicated to giving freelance and emerging writers on photography the freedom to write self-directed content.
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