In 1968, the first document about Photolangage was published ; today, this word is used so frequently among educators that it has acquired a generic signification.
Photolangage was originally created to help adolescents to express themselves and communicate with others; however, very quickly, it proved itself to be a very resourceful tool in adult education . For this reason it has been very succesful in France namely in refresher courses and workshops, and this success has been even greater when a law in 1971 declared that the principles of continuous training should be applied to all working people.
Photolangage now forms part of educational methods which are useful not only to associations but also to professionals working at different levels within companies. It is also used in other European countries as well as in Africa, America, India or Australia.
This method has thus proved its utility in a number of different conditions and within diversified cultures.
Photolangage is a brand name ; under this name, its creators, Alain Baptiste and Claire Belisle , propose a method to facilitate groupwork as well as thematic photo-documents which can be used to support various types of communication and educational activities.
Since its creation, Photolangage can be defined by two distinct criteria:
1) Photolangage is a collection of thematic photo-documents implying a specific approach of photography which can be used for groupwork ;
2) Photolangage focuses at the same time on work within a group, on the recognition, by the participant, of his personal concepts and in oral participation.
As a method, Photolangage is special because it uses a photo to incite people to speak about themselves. The participants are not expected to comment on the esthetic characteristics of the photograph ; nor are they allowed to chat about it just for the sake of conversation. They are invited to choose one or many photos (depending) by means of which they can illustrate and comment on a personal point of view, a life experience, a mental image, or a specific idea. The role of the group-leader, amongst others, is to make sure that the image proposed by each participant actually matches what he wants to say.
The photos are chosen for their strong suggestive power, their aesthetic quality, their projective capacity and their symbolical value. Their role is to stimulate and reactivate these images we all carry within ourselves and through which we perceive and keep in touch with reality. To come into contact with one’s personal images and to be able to discuss about them with others can help to widen the field of consciousness, to look at these images more critically, and to develop imaginative sensibility.
Photolangage is a facilitating support which invites each person to choose one or several photos and to explain this choice in front of the other members of the group. The photo acts as an activator of language , and facilitates communication. In this type of groupwork, nobody needs to be in a privileged position, as if he had found the truth and the others are looking for it. It has nothing to do with teaching ; the aim is to encourage a certain type of relation to reality, to knowledge and to people.
Anyway, neither the knowledge of the method and of the approach, nor the collection of photos is sufficient to achieve successful groupwork. The success depends not only on the professionalism of the leader, but also on the objective and on the context in which Photolangage is used. We know a certain number of colleagues who have initiated a remarkable quality of deep thinking and significant individual or collective changes ; other group leaders, whose objectives are less ambitious, achieve results which are less profound, but however very significant. Photolangage can in fact be adapted to its users ; and every group can grow and adapt itself to the method while it uses it. But nobody, as a group leader , has been able to achieve really good results without following a training course in psycho-sociology and groupwork.
Many group- leaders have been informed of the method through these courses and have asked for further training. Others have heard about Photolangage while following a session and have been pleased by the method – or by the collection of photos ; and they have decided to use it without any other training.
If we take it for granted that a pedagogical preparation is necessary, those people, who have been prepared, and use Photolangage in their professional and benevolent activities, ask for up-to-date documentation.
All the books published to explain the method being today out of stock, I have decided to create an internet site so that a greater number of people can come into contact with Photolangage, its recent and future methodology, its photo-documents ; on this site, experiences can also be shared and discussed.
Today, the users of Photolangage, i.e. professional trainers, communication facilitators, leaders of organisations, psychotherapists, all of them need and ask for reliable information about this subject. They need it for different reasons : either they simply hope to find a guide which will enable them to master the method ; or they may want to think more deeply about it and, maybe, enrich it with new methodological or theoretical concepts.
This site is dedicated to all these people.
You can choose to explore it right through from beginning to end, or to consult it in relation to a specific interest ; you may also begin by the practical aspects and then refer to the theory, thus alternating the « case-study » with the search for explanatory references.
This need for information is normal. We have very often met people who nearly refused to get involved in a Photolangage session, because they had been fooled by an abusive utilisation of the method, or they had felt manipulated by a non-initiated group-leader. Unfortunately, these types of group-leaders have no knowledge of deontology and no sort of carefulness or discretion. And it is sad, not only for those who are victims of such leaders , who will never again benefit from Photolangage, but also for the reputation of our profession ; it is also sad for Photolangage, which, in half an hour of slapdash exercise, loses for ever its credibility.
However, we must be careful : Photolangage is by no means the « miracle-product » which makes people express themselves immediately. The group-leader must never forget the deontological principle which states clearly that the method itself is strongly based on the respect of the individuals with whom it is used. Photolangage is neither a test nor a gadget ; neither is it a manipulatory tool. But it is true that its effects can be observed very quickly ; the leader and its group can measure it at the end of a session, and sometimes after only one sequence. But deeper changes take more time ; and some participants sometimes acknowledge, after many weeks, the work which has been done within themselves because of the resulting changes of attitudes and behaviour which appear to be profound and long-lasting. The underground river finds its own way and can only be seen when it comes out.
The impact of Photolangage on the participants can always be felt, not only by the group-leader but by the members of the group. It is sometimes so powerful that some people involve themselves in it with a very strong psychological and emotional energy. Evidence of this real involvement is that sometimes photos disappear from a collection at the end of a session and it is not only because they are aesthetic. Far from it ! It also happens that the « borrower » sends back the photo to the group leader, with a short letter explaining that he needed it for his personnal interior progression. This real involvement of participants justifies the fact that group-leaders must be very careful in applying very strictly the deontological principles accompanying the method.
Photolangage recently had to face a real challenge. When it was created during the sixties, a certain number of « non-directive » schools of thought were coming into light to renovate adult education; our method, as any other attempt of pedagogical mediation , appeared doubtful. But we have met this challenge. Yet, two other difficult ones remain : one is linked to the fact that the « image » is discredited in the educational world . More importance is given to words and the power of images becomes suspicious.
Images, particularly photos are very often despised in the pedagogical world ; they are associated to children or to lower classes. They do not look serious, just as those cheap pedagogical toys which however, have often proved their usefulness and efficacity !
On the other hand, some educators have been so fascinated by medias, that their activities and tuitions are invaded by videos, or other audio-visual tools, to such a point that images in this context, become a banality. They are of no real use, they have no real signification, they do not ease communication and happen to become more hampering than helpful.
We have a wide field to work in and explore with a number of possible combinations and articulations ; and each of these is in itself a new promise, which will lead us to a new, unknown destination .
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