ABSTRACT
Photovoice is an engaging visual research methodology that uses participants’ photos to visualise their responses to particular issues as a basis for consensus building and communication to a wider audience. We focus on a project investigating the values and concerns of three different groups regarding being ‘at the water’s edge’ in times of uncertainty due to climate change. This research was conducted at the biennial environmental art event Floating Land, held within the Noosa Biosphere Reserve, Queensland, Australia, at which local, national and international artists were invited to examine the theme of climate change and rising sea levels. We were interested in applying photovoice to elicit environmental concerns at a grassroots level, and to explore these perspectives within the context of an event that sought to examine climate change issues through creative practice. We also were interested in using photovoice to determine participants’ views on the effectiveness of such a festival in engaging community about environmental matters. This project was significant because prior photovoice research had focused primarily on drawing out participants’ collective ideas (Baker & Wang, 2006; Carlson, Engebretson & Chamberlain, 2006; Castleden, Nookemus & Dennis, 2006). We extended this in our Floating Land project by evaluating the impact of the selected images and the meanings they conveyed to both photovoice participants and their audience. In doing so, we brought our own differing disciplinary knowledge in environmental planning, visual communication and visual literacy to the process. We developed a research partnership for this project through a shared interest in using visual methods to investigate research questions. Drawing on her strengths in environmental planning, Claudia had already effectively employed photovoice methods in relation to differing stakeholder perceptions of water management. Lisa’s expertise in visual analysis, her background as an artist and curator and her interest in the capacity of creative practice to explore environmental and other questions underpinned her involvement in the project. Collectively we saw the potential of expanding the application of photovoice from its original usage for health issues and community
development to encompass environmental research areas. Additionally we found that bringing our different disciplinary ‘frames’ to the project enriched the process and understandings generated. Through our research we sought to contribute to understandings of social constructions of climate change at both community and broader levels (Baldwin & Chandler, 2010). In this chapter we explain how photovoice methods facilitated our research aims and discuss how photovoice might function, on a broader level, as a useful qualitative research tool in drawing out community narratives and responses to complex issues.
