“A picture tells a thousand words”
Imagery has been found to be an incredibly powerful and impactful way to tell a story, or share an experience. There are many different types of people who are often not able to have their stories or experiences represented in research. Health care policy, clinical practice and research priorities are too often shaped by those with the greatest access to research processes, rather than those with the greatest need.
Creative methods offer a way to make research more inclusive, and empowering. In some methods, such as photovoice, images serve a dual purpose of not only answering a research question, but also having the potential to continue to be impactful, and create change (Mooney et al., 2023).
Many collaborative research methods are born from frameworks or theories around participatory action research. However the ‘action’ part is often framed as simply dissemination, or sharing the findings and rarely evaluated. Sharing research findings in an accessible sustainable way not only leads to continued impact, but also builds trust with the communities and people who participated in the research (Cornish et al., 2023). McIntyre and colleagues conducted research to better understand the impact on the audience who attended a photovoice exhibition that shared the lived experience of dementia.
A picture tells a thousand words: creative research methods enable participation to be more inclusive and empowering.
Methods
Photovoice is a methodology that has evolved from feminist psychology and participatory action researchers, to empower communities to influence policy. Photovoice combines imagery and narrative to allow participants to share their experiences without being limited by the perspective of the researcher (Wang & Burris, 1997). This methodology privileges lived experience as valid knowledge and data. Participants are encouraged to take images that illustrate their experiences and add captions to provide context, and avoid their images being reinterpreted or repurposed.
The team conducted a photovoice study with people who had memory loss. They used a mixed methods approach to better understand the impact of the dissemination of photovoice outputs, and their potential to reduce stigma around memory loss.
The authors state that “qualitative surveys are an underutilised tool, providing both a ‘wide angle’ lens and the potential for rich and focused data, even when responses are brief”. A qualitative survey was distributed amongst people who attended a photographic exhibition, and interviews were conducted with the study team members. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.
Results
Of those who completed the survey, nearly half of the respondents had participated in the study that generated the images and almost a third attended owing to professional or personal interest. The majority of those interviewed were female. Of the 9 interviews conducted, 6 were researchers, 2 were people with lived experience and one was a photographer/artist. The data from the survey and interviews were combined for analysis, which resulted in three themes.
Seeing through another’s eyes: fostering empathy and insight
The first theme related to the ability of the exhibited images to share the viewpoint of the participants, and truly offer those interacting with it, a lens to better understand their experiences. This new insight was often described as ‘thought provoking’ and ‘inspiring’, and for many attendees this created space for empathy and prompted reflection on what it must be like for people suffering with memory loss who they personally interacted with.
Visual research in action: communicating findings and building community
The second theme highlighted the impact of using visual methods to communicate research findings. Participants also shared that the process of creating the exhibition had an impact and generated learning. The exhibition also provided an arena where those engaging with the exhibition could discuss and interrogate the findings amongst themselves. This often provided opportunities for connecting and reducing stigma.
Emotional impact: hope and motivation for change
The final theme shared the potential for emotional activation amongst participants. Hope was frequently conveyed alongside new-found motivations to reduce their future dementia risk.
Viewing images created as part of a photovoice study enabled participants to gain a deep understanding of the experience of memory loss.
Conclusions
This research demonstrated the power in visual methods to communicate unique experiences, truly providing an opportunity to ‘walk a mile in someone’s shoes’, or view the world through their lens.
In lobbying for change, people are often reduced to grave numbers or statistics that need to change, but improved understanding of the lived experience can assist the impact of such information to motivating people to make changes, engage in preventative actions and be more empathetic.
This photovoice study allowed members of the public to ‘walk a mile’ in the shoes of someone experiencing memory loss.
Strengths and limitations
This work is novel as it considers the impact of the data beyond the life course of the funded research. This type of data is rarely considered or collected, but is incredibly important when considering the sustained impact of lived experience data. This is particularly important when we consider the burden on participants and researchers to generate data, especially in fields where traditional systems that facilitate research are not inclusive to those who are most in need. Therefore an integral part of maintaining ethical research practices should relate to ensuring that the data has maximal impact, and is shared and accessible beyond the funding cycle. However, often owing to funding constraints it is rarely possible to assess the true long-term impact of sharing lived experience data.
It would have been interesting to also interview those who attended the exhibition, but were not involved in the study, and to perhaps collect more data from the same cohort a year or so after the exhibition, to determine if their attendance led them to change anything in their professional or personal practice.
This study offers a rare insight into the impact of lived experience data beyond the life course of the funded research.
Implications for practice
Future research should consider the impact of visual methods not only in engaging marginalised groups to contribute their experiences, but also in how experiences are shared and communicated to policymakers and the general public. There is huge potential in imagery to reduce stigma and to communicate difficult traumatic experiences in an impactful way.
The use of visual imagery can encourage people to think differently, and to take a different perspective, truly understanding the impact within often hidden communities.
In conducting inclusive research, researchers are often told that the findings of research are not well communicated to the communities who are intended to benefit or have contributed to the research. Visual methods make research tangible and accessible; sparking conversation, building trust, and bringing the voices of communities into the evidence that shapes policy and practice.
Future research should consider the impact of visual methods not only in engaging marginalised groups to contribute their experiences, but also in how experiences are shared and communicated to policymakers and the general public.
Statement of interests
Roisin Mooney is a co-investigator on three studies that use photovoice methodology.
Editor
Edited by Laura Hemming.
Links
Primary paper
Sinéad McIntyre, Claudia Cooper, Natalia Chemas, Sukey Parnell Johnson, Paul Higgs, Wendy Martin, Sarah Morgan-Trimmer, Alexandra Burton, Michaela Poppe, Ellie Whitfield (2025). ‘Memories we treasure’: Evaluating the impact on co-designers and audiences of a photographic exhibition by participants with memory problems. Dementia, 14713012251338551.
Other references
Cornish, F., Breton, N., Moreno-Tabarez, U., Delgado, J., Rua, M., de-Graft Aikins, A., & Hodgetts, D. (2023). Participatory action research. Nature Reviews Methods Primers, 3(1), 34.
Mooney, R., Dempsey, C., Brown, B. J., Keating, F., Joseph, D., & Bhui, K. (2023). Using participatory action research methods to address epistemic injustice within mental health research and the mental health system. Frontiers in public health, 11, 1075363.
Wang, C., & Burris, M. A. (1997). Photovoice: Concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. Health education & behavior, 24(3), 369-387.
