Seeing and Unseeing the City: Photography, Power and Spatial Justice in Urban Co-Creation

Participatory photography is increasingly used in urban planning and co-creation, but its ability to promote spatial justice continues to raise doubts. This article analyses the conditions under which visual participation can challenge, reproduce or legitimise unequal power relations. Based on a critical–interpretative review of the literature published mainly between 2016 and 2026, a four-dimensional analytical framework is developed that addresses access to participation, control over the production and circulation of images, contradictory experiences of urban space, and the relationship between representation and material change. The synthesis identifies persistent inequalities in visual literacy and participation, in the control exercised by researchers and institutions over the selection and interpretation of images, and in the selective use of visual evidence to support established agendas. It also shows how participatory images can reveal divergent spatial experiences that consensus-oriented planning may overlook. Emerging generative AI tools also raise new questions about representational bias and visual credibility. The findings suggest that the emancipatory potential of participatory photography depends less on the technique itself than on participants’ authority over visual narratives, institutional accountability, and the translation of recognition into procedural influence or tangible outcomes. The conceptual framework developed provides an interpretative basis for assessing these conditions, whilst recognising that its explanatory value requires further empirical testing.