PHOTOVOICE AS AN EMPOWERMENT TOOL FOR YOUTH AT RISK

The aim of the research was to accompany a group of teenagers at risk through a photography workshop and provide them with cameras as a tool to allow them to investigate their environment and represent it as part of a personal and social empowerment project, in order to examine the potential of Photovoice to document the personal and social perspectives of teenagers at risk.

Photovoice (Wang, 1997) refers to the practice of providing cameras to members of a group so they can investigate their environment and represent it for purposes of change as part of personal and social empowerment. This practice is based on Freire's (1981) approach, which emphasizes the process of empowerment that can only grow from within communities themselves, as well as on the feminist theory, which argues that knowledge is built through social relationships (Fine et al., 2003).

The research methodology is feminist qualitative; the research tool are photographs, records of conversations, researcher's diary and conversations on a closed Facebook group. The research population consists of seven teenagers who participated in a weekly photography workshop for six months that I volunteered to lead at a shelter for teenagers at risk. A holistic content analysis of research tools was carried out in order to give voice to each participant, as well as crosswise analysis to elicit common themes. The findings showed that photography enabled open discussion about subjects reflected in photographic images and their symbolic meanings for participants: amongst others subjects such as: labeling, stigma, intimacy, sexual identity. An opportunity arose for direct contact and illustration of the experience of appearance. And indeed interaction with their environment and social involvement with teenagers around the shelter.