By Susan Wampler
The USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism and Venice Arts have launched the Institute for Photographic Empowerment (IPE), a unique university-community partnership to support the study and practice of “participant-produced” documentary projects in photography, film and digital media. Such projects give traditionally marginalized and underrepresented communities a direct way of communicating about their struggles and accomplishments, raising awareness that can lead to social change.
“A social phenomenon is emerging in countless communities and countries that we think deserves to be celebrated, replicated, studied and identified,” says Geoffrey Cowan (pictured, top left), University Professor, director of the USC Annenberg’s Center on Communication Leadership, one of the founding partners of IPE. “The institute combines the resources, energies and contacts of Venice Arts and USC Annenberg. Venice Arts has compiled a remarkable record in the United States and the world—from helping the homeless to document their lives to giving voice to women in Africa who are living with HIV. At USC Annenberg, scholars are studying the impact of these images on communities and individuals. We believe that participant-produced photography is a fresh and exciting way to contribute to public diplomacy and to make it possible for people to gain leadership roles in their own communities.”
“This is an extraordinary opportunity to develop a growing field by bringing a cross-section of people together in practice, study and research,” says Warshafsky. “More importantly, it provides new opportunities for those of us who have been working in communities for many years to better advocate for social change and to support those who tend to be the most voiceless amongst us by lifting up their powerful visual stories for the world to see.”
The institute is the first of its kind and will serve as a resource for people from around the world—photographers, filmmakers, academics, researchers and project participants—to share best practices and develop this important and burgeoning field. It will:
- create a portal through which projects from all over the world can be viewed
- support social change by sharing the information and images produced by participants with policymakers and non-governmental organizations
- convene conferences, retreats and seminars
- conduct academic research and explore ethical issues relating to the photographic empowerment movement
- offer student internship opportunities and real-world experience assisting on documentary projects of significance around the world
- develop new academic courses, including distance learning, certificate programs and potentially new degree and minor programs
- establish intensive, short-term courses and special institutes to provide training and a collaborative learning environment for people interested in participant-produced documentary methods
- serve as a go-to source for the media interested in participant-produced photography and the issues being uncovered through their work
- partner with secondary schools throughout the country and around the world to engage in the institute’s projects as a teaching tool
- further disseminate the resulting work through exhibitions, an online gallery and other avenues; and
- increase general awareness of critical social issues being addressed through participant-created photography and film.
Venice Arts is a recognized leader in the area of participant-produced photography. Through its Social Art Initiative, it implements photo documentary projects of significance with both poor or otherwise marginalized children and adults locally, nationally and internationally. In the 1980s, Hubbard began putting cameras into the hands of homeless and Native American children, teaching them how to document their lives by telling their stories photographically through his Shooting Back project. Instead of having outsiders—documentary photographers—produce the work, his method has the subjects themselves do the photography, after they are given cameras and are trained in how to use them.
“It’s really turned photojournalism on its head,” says Baer. “This is showing us glimpses of their lives we otherwise couldn’t see. There really is a movement afoot, with photo storytelling projects across Asia, South America, Africa. It’s happening because technology is changing. It’s cheaper and easier to use. With these profound changes in technology come opportunities not available before.”
As evidence of the burgeoning movement, within a few hours of announcing the new institute, Cowan and Hubbard heard from numerous individuals with relevant projects, including the parent of a USC Annenberg student who is an advisor to a nonprofit group empowering students in inner-city Baltimore to document the conditions in their dilapidated schools.
Communication professor François Bar is working with international colleagues to provide camera phones to handicapped people in Barcelona, taxi drivers in Mexico City, motorcycle couriers in Sao Paolo and prostitutes in Madrid to document their lives.
The Institute for Photographic Empowerment also builds on USC Annenberg’s longstanding strengths in visual communication. For the past four years, USC Annenberg has been one of only two sites in the nation to exhibit the prestigious World Press Photo exhibition, which highlights the greatest achievements in photojournalism from the previous year. The school hosts numerous other photo exhibitions, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning work of David Hume Kennerly earlier this year.
For more information, visit http://joinipe.org. 
