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| Sharon Younkin Image Credit: tecca.com |
They say pictures are worth a thousand words, yet in today’s world of great peril and innovations, images can be made to scream. The rise and eventual popularity of photovoice, a participatory action research method that uses documentary photography, has changed the way people from the grassroots share their unique experiences and move to create change. It is photo power at its best, mirroring community pitfalls and struggles and challenging authorities to take the cudgels for the burdened populace.
Sharon Younkin served as the Director for Community Service Programs at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
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| Sharon Younkin Image Credit: minerva.stkate.edu |
Although developed by Caroline C. Wang of the University of Michigan, and Mary Ann Burris, a research associate in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London in 1992 to advocate the cause of women in Yunnan Province, China, the concept for photovoice has actually been around since the 1920s and ‘30s when documentary photography became a tool for social activism. The practice gained more weight and significance in the 1960s when Paulo Freire’s seminal theory of critical pedagogy has greatly influenced the international practice for community development.
Since its inception until at present, the use of photography remains a valuable platform for community-based social actions. From mere still images, photovoice gives voice to the marginalized sectors—laying out the faces of poverty and suffering throughout the world.
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| Sharon Younkin Image Credit: thdblog.wordpress.com |
For more information on Sharon Younkin, visit this Twitter page.
