Description

This technique builds on the Community Camera approach from Design as Democracy (2017) and Gemma Moore et al.’s work (2008).  This is a photography and reflection exercise that can be completed by either the designers and/or by residents who live in and will use the site being designed.  Photos are taken in response to prompts and a log sheet provides space for written reflection on why those photos were choses.  Prompts can be general or very specific.  You can use the general prompts provided as examples, or create prompts geared to the specific conditions you would like to investigate or design for.  A log sheet should be used to collect the information. 

 Some general prompts that can serve as a starting point are:

• What place(s) do you think are good /  beautiful / your favorite ?
• What place(s) do you think are bad / ugly / most in need of improvement ?
• What place(s) are social / where you go with friends ?
• What place(s) are personal / private / where you go to be alone ?
• Where do you feel safe / comfortable / like you belong ?

Collaborative Social Camera exercise

created by Lola Wong and a community member from Irise (above) 

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Social Camera exercise created by Lola Wong before the collaboration (below) 

 Assisted Social Camera exercise

created by Jose Chavez for a community member from Irise (below) 

Steps

1) Ask students / designers / a representative selection of community members to take photos using open ended/inductive prompts such as “take photos that capture positive and negative aspects of your area,” (Gemma Moore et al.) or more focused prompts such as those listed above.

2) Each participant is given a log sheet for the photos, providing contextual information for each image, which includes date, time, location, and a short written reflection on why that place was chosen.  An additional question can be included that asks participants to reflect on how others feel about the place they have photographed.

3) Once the photographs and log sheets have been completed a meeting can be scheduled with participants.

4) Develop a semi-structured protocol for questions to organize the discussion at the meeting.  Possible questions could include:

• How does this place make you/others in/outside your community feel?
• What do others in your community/outside your community think about this place?
• Would you change anything about this place? Why or why not?
• What do you think is important/valuable/should be kept in this place? Why or why not?
• Tell me about this place? What is it? Describe it. What smells, sounds are in this place?
• How does this place change at night/day?
• Who comes to this place? Who do you think feels comfortable here?

References

• Harper, D. (1998). An Argument for Visual Sociology. In Image-based Research. Routledge.
• Harper, D. (2002). Talking about pictures: A case for photo elicitation. Visual Studies, 17(1), 13–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/14725860220137345
• Hurworth, R. (2003). Photo-Interviewing for Research. Social Research Update, 40.
• Knowles, C., & Sweetman, P. (Eds.). (2004). Picturing the social landscape: Visual methods and the sociological imagination (1st ed.). Routledge.
• Moore, G., Croxford, B., Adams, M., Refaee, M., Cox, T., & Sharples, S. (2008). The photo‐survey research method: Capturing life in the city. Visual Studies, 23(1), 50–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/14725860801908536