About Us

PhotoVoice’s activities will provide benefit to individuals and communities in the UK and worldwide by promoting, supporting, and educating on the ethical use of photography and photographic practices as a tool of social change, and supporting ways for people to share and communicate their perspectives.

We will:

• Design and deliver photography programmes and projects with different communities in the UK and internationally, with an emphasis on underrepresented communities, supporting them to articulate their experiences to a range of audiences. As a result, communities will be better able to share their perspectives through photography and photographic practices to relevant audiences, and seek opportunities to have their circumstances better understood or addressed.
• Provide training, education and engagement on the ethical use of photography and photographic practices. Photographers and those engaging with photographic practices will be better informed about a range of ways in which photography can be used and shared, and better equipped to understand the ethical considerations involved.
• Work in partnership with other organisations to inform their activities when using photography or photographic practices, providing training, consultancy, or project delivery. Organisations will be better able to utilise photography and photographic practices in their activities, with greater understanding and recognition of the requirements to ensure ethical considerations are fully considered.
• Provide advice, support and training to organisations and individuals on good community engagement. Organisations and individuals will be better able to deliver community engagement programmes 

Any surplus made by PhotoVoice will be used for developing new approaches to community engagement through photography, designing new programmes and projects, and developing new resources and materials to further its knowledge, skills and activities.

There are also a number of other elements which PhotoVoice is proud of:

• Our focus is on project delivery and partnership working rather than fundraising.
• The vast majority of our income is spent on our projects – in previous years, we have been able to utilise around 85p of every £1 on our projects and communications work, which we aspire to replicate and improve on if we can. That means for every pound donated, the vast majority is spent on our work.
• We don’t use unpaid interns, and all of the staff who work for PhotoVoice are paid at least the London Living Wage.
• We don’t use street fundraisers, direct marketing, or exploitative images or messages in order to raise funds for our work.
• We never sell or share supporter or subscriber information to others.
• We don’t share website visitor data with others.
• We strive to maintain a ratio of below 3:1 between the highest and the lowest salaries within the core team.
• Our office uses ethical suppliers when possible for our utilities and other office costs.
• All staff, trustees, freelancers and others involved in our work are required to have an Enhanced DBS check.
• We don’t sell images to image libraries, believing that the lack of control over how these images are subsequently used is contrary to our ethical approach.
• All images created by project participants are owned by their creator.
• Participants can choose on an image by image basis which images and captions – if any – are shared outside of the confines of a project.
• Regardless of the partner we work with, we will never assign copyright or intellectual property rights for any participant-created images or captions to others. PhotoVoice’s project participants retain copyright of the images they create, only granting us and partners a license to use them should they choose to.
• No matter where we are in the world, we use a gold standard for safeguarding and consent, regardless of whether the local laws or customs could allow otherwise.
• We have a comprehensive approach to informed consent, which we undertake at the end of our projects. No participant is pressured to create or share content they do not want to. This applies regardless of the policies or practices of our partners.
• Where it is safe or appropriate for us to do so, participants retain the cameras they use on the projects.
• We emphasise the importance of capacity building with local organisations we work with, embedding our approach and methodology with them before engaging in fieldwork.

© Arkar 2014 | PhotoVoice | International HIV/AIDS Alliance | ‘Mysterious Youth Eyes’ | Myanmar

© Tracey Sumner 2013 | PhotoVoice | DiversityInCare | 'Shutter Release' | UK

"Now it's time to focus."

© Kula Taro Wariyo 2015 | PhotoVoice | Christian Aid | 'BRACED' | Ethiopia

"I want to show the effects of drought - everything becomes dry, including the seeds which bring resources. On the ground the seeds weren't visible so I have learnt to be active and use my hands to place things in order to reveal the reality of the situation."

© Wesam 2014 | PhotoVoice | World Vision | 'And we shall find tales in the shadows' | Jordan

"Flowers and Shadows."

© Hosianna 2016 | PhotoVoice | HPA | REAP | Rwanda

"This is to show the entrance (gate) of our school where the visitors come in."

© AD 2014 | PhotoVoice | International HIV/AIDS Alliance | ‘Mysterious Youth Eyes’ | Myanmar

"Without access to ART treatment the life of an HIV Positive person can deteriorate like this leaf."

© Jo-Anna 2018 | PhotoVoice | PACT - Alana House | 'My View' | UK

"Even when negative things happen, I work hard to turn them around. When people judge me, I continue on and prove them wrong."

© Tom Elkins | PhotoVoice