Abstract
The positive reception of Wang and Burris’ photovoice method, published in 1997, has led to a proliferation of ways in which professionals deploy photovoice in a widening range of application fields, e.g., public health, social development and phenomenological research of human experiences. A scoping review method is used to obtain an overview of current photovoice designs and of application examples in the health and safety domain. The results show a variety of method designs. Our findings indicate that all of the photovoice designs are composed from different combinations of eleven process steps. Five generic objectives cover the range of application examples found in our literature study. We therefore condensed the variety into five generic photovoice designs for: (a) communication, (b) education, (c) exploration, (d) awareness, and (e) empowerment purposes. We propose this for use in a classification system. The potential for application of these photovoice designs in safety management is illustrated by the existence of various safety related application examples. We argue that the five generic designs will facilitate the implementation and usage of photovoice as a tool. We recommend that both a theoretical framework and guidance are further developed. We conclude that photovoice holds potential for application in health and safety management.
Highlights
The saying “a picture can tell more than a thousand words” was proven right many times since the rise of photography at the end of the 19th century
Reflecting on the existing health and safety related photovoice applications found in this study and the similarities with what safety management system activities need to accomplish and improve in organizations [22], we observe that: The main strength of photovoice is that the data are ‘pure’ since participants, in this case, e.g., workers in a factory, nurses in a hospital department or iron workers on a construction site, both make and interpret the photographs themselves
Photovoice as a tool is useful to safety management since it can withstand criticism and resistance from those who protect their interests at the expense of health and safety and it helps to create joint ownership of a project outcome among participants and stakeholders
Summary
The saying “a picture can tell more than a thousand words” was proven right many times since the rise of photography at the end of the 19th century. Photographs started to show what goes on outside peoples’ field of view in daily life, e.g., in countries overseas, in war zones or in remote places. Associated with each picture there is a story—a narrative or an explanation—told by the photographer or observer, sharing the experience on site [1,2]). While entering an increasing number of areas in society, a plethora of methods connecting image and story were developed over the 20th century [3]. During the 1980s participants were invited to make pictures about their life, and were interviewed about these, leading to a ‘photo novella’ [4]. Several ‘participatory visual methods’ emerged, e.g., ‘participatory photography’, ‘photo-elicitation’ and ‘digital storytelling’ [5]
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