Toward an Endarkened Photovoice Methodology

The canonical and foundational literature on photovoice research and photo elicitation methods specifically focuses on the impact, import, and power of visual approaches to inquiry and knowledge production (Kim, 2016; Latz, 2017; Wang & Burris, 1997). Additional research also describes the importance of photovoice research as an action research project that should be meaningfully engaged with the community in question (Kim, 2016; Latz, 2017). This scholarly article traces the contours of photos, imagery, and subsequently photovoice research in tandem with an endarkened feminist epistemology toward an endarkened photovoice methodology. This is to say, what is captured within a photograph matters just as much as who captures the photo, how, and why. Dillard (2006b) argues that Black scholars are not “white scholars who happen to be Black” (p. 63); we similarly assert there is a specific and culturally relevant connection between Black communities and imagery that researchers should center when engaging Black people and communities in photovoice research.