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More about "fotonovela"

More about the fotonovela or picture-novel

For academic researchers, doing a fotonovela can be useful means of data gathering while establishing a participatory and empowering research process and a way of documenting findings.

Here is an example of how a fotonovela was used by Las Golondrinas, a group of women from Huitzilac in the State of Morelos Mexico, to analyze their organizational experience, systematize their experience and document it to share it with other groups.

The process of developing the fotonovela was as follows: A collective interview with all six member of the group was first carried by an academic researcher assisting the group document their organizational process. From this interview the idea of doing a fotonovela arose. The women felt the need to systematize their experience for internal capacity strengthening and to share their organizational experience with other women in other communities in the region. This participatory research tool aimed to strengthen and mobilize the group while at the same time produce information on a community based initiative for environmental decision-making and action.

The fotonovela was a collective effort by the five members of Las Golondrinas, Yaqueline Cortez, a member of Grupo Colibrí, Leyre Hurtado, a communication’s student volunteering with GEMA and Gisela Frias, an academic researcher from McGill University and member of ACCES. The first step taken was the collective design of the process to document the story to be told by the fotonovela. A question guide for an interview was written collectively and each member of Las Golondrinas responded to the interview. These interviews were recorded and transcribed. Once the interviews were transcribed the accuracy of the responses was validated with Las Golondrinas who then collectively decided what text to keep and what photographs to include. Leyre Hurtado took the photographs. The women then selected the photographs that would be part of the final document. The process permitted continuous reflection, not only on the part of the researcher but also and most importantly by the women involved. See PDF document >>