30 Years of Photovoice Conference: Photovoice as Peace Photography by Tiffany Fairey (English)

Despite significant scholarship on war photography and images of violence and suffering, the relationship between photography and peace is underexplored. A new agenda for visual peace research has posed the question: what might a photography of peace consist of? How might photography contribute to or anticipate peace? This talk will discuss how photovoice and participatory forms of image-making work as peace photography. Through Imaging Peace, a 3-year Leverhulme Fellowship project, I have been working with practitioners based in countries with recent and ongoing histories of conflict, violence and genocide to explore how photovoice, community driven and participatory photography are being used to catalyse dialogue, to support healing, to re-build relationships and inspire peace imaginaries. Taking an expansive view of photovoice and participatory photography, I will discuss the intentional, adaptive and careful methods and strategies being used by practitioners and communities and critically consider the peace potentialities of photovoice and participatory image-making.
Tiffany Fairey is a Leverhulme Research Fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. Co-Founder and former director of the UK charity PhotoVoice, she has 20+ years’ specialist experience working with photovoice and participatory visual methods in the UK and internationally. She completed her PhD in Visual Sociology (Goldsmiths College) with research into community photography histories and participatory photography ethics and impact. Her current research, Imaging Peace, focuses on the role of images and community engaged image-making in building peace and dialogue. Collaborating with partners in Colombia, Nepal, Rwanda, Northern Ireland and BiH, Fairey is conducting the first multi-country empirical study of community engaged peace photography. Her work has been recognised with various awards including the Royal Photographic Society’s Hood Medal for outstanding advance in photography for public service (2010) and King’s College SSPP Impact Award (2022).