ABSTRACT

This chapter explores how and why the process of making and sharing photographs (a method called photovoice) can alter what children from the indigenous Pälawan group in the Philippines do to prevent and treat malaria. The current literature on photovoice highlights its ability to ‘empower’ individuals to make changes to their lives by changing the way they think (i.e. by acting as symbols that people can reflect on, interpret, discuss and use as a basis to act). In contrast, I argue that photographs are not just important because of their symbolic properties but also because of their indexical and iconic ones. Photovoice is effective because as children make and use material photographs of malaria practices, they are simultaneously and repetitively required to engage their bodies in practicing malaria. This is illustrated through an analysis of photographs taken by participants or myself that capture ‘moments of engagement.’ They show what children were doing and looked like as they made and shared photographs. They reveal that the process lead participants to consciously think differently about practice but also facilitated them to unconsciously do differently. As such, data illustrates how and why engagement with material objects can potentially alter medical practice.