All roads to knowledge and consciousness are not equivalent. Photolangage wants its training course to be deeply rooted in the participant’s personal identity and history. Therefore, on one hand, photolangage implies the integration of visual language as being the opportunity for a new expression, and thus a new way of looking, specific or not, at a photo. On the other hand, this method is used to work with groups ; thus, it interacts with other psychical processes which are stimulated by the interactions between the members of the group .
Very quickly, it became clear that, over and above the iconic support (the photos), the specificity of Photolangage was contained in the method of work with the photos. The aim of the method is not to show things, to which images are often associated, but to suggest another language that echoes the images of the mind ; to express the necessary inner work preceding and accompanying the positioning of a person through his training and development.
This chapter introduces you to the method of Photolangage, with its specificity and its different aspects. The different steps of a work session with Photolangage are described here with precision. A group leader can thus easily integrate them when accompanying a group.
WHAT PHOTOLANGAGE IS.
Photolangage is :
1) a collection of photo-documents, each containing from 40 to 100 coloured photos -
16 x 25,5 cm – or black and white photos – 18 x 24 cm) ;
2) a method to work in group with these photos.
It is mainly used for education, but has also been integrated in some forms of therapy. It can be used, among other things, to gather information from a group of people for an enquiry, to enhance creative activities, or in career guidance.
The main characteristic of Photolangage as a method for groupwork, is that it offers the opportunity to each participant to give an answer to a question by the means of photos. Everybody must, through the personal choice of one or several photos, express his answer and situate himself in reference to a question, and in reference to a group. Together with the question leading to this choice, very specific instructions are given to the group regarding the organisation of the work within the group and the participation of each of its members in a very specific task. Each participant can thus establish a personal link between a proposed theme and a photo.
The group leader has a fundamental role to play. He facilitates links between what is said by the different members of the group and makes possible the mutual listening among them.The photos show images which can be identified and named ; these ease communication about personal experience of participants and prevents superficiality. The photos become a means, an opportunity and a place from where a personal word can be said, allowing everybody to integrate himself in a thematic groupwork at a specific moment; from there he can understand a situation more deeply and construct new elements of his own knowledge.
2.) WHAT IS SPECIFIC OF THE METHOD : PERSONAL EXPRESSION, LISTENING, AND PHOTOGRAPHIC LANGUAGE .
In a workshop with Photolangage, each member of the group must try, through the choice of one or several photos, to express in front of this group, certain aspects of his own experience in relation to a specific question. The photo becomes a mediator which allows personal opinions, experience and ideas to be shared more easily because they are anchored in a situation which has become common to all the members of the group. Personal expression, attentive listening, and photographic language are thus the three complementary aspects which constitute the specificity of Photolangage.
a) Personal expression
The central aim in Photolangage is the oral sharing from each participant after deep inner personal work. These conditions are essential to reach the given objectives, and are the main criteria to decide if it is the adequate method for this specific purpose ;
In fact, if this work with the photos is done only as a group discussion, without personal investment and deep thought from each participant, the result can only be superficial and stereotyped. Thus, if the result is to be personal investment and sharing, then this implies that the method must first be presented in a way that allows everybody to understand and integrate its objectives. The next step of the method is individual choice ; this includes the good understanding of the work to be done, concentration from the different members of the group, and the possibility of interacting freely with the photos without being hampered by more or less defensive remarks coming from other members of the group.
In groupwork, language is not accessible to all in the same way. What has been observed when using photolangage is that status and roles represented in the photos are neglected to give place to personal expression. The figurative elements are even more evocative for people who are not used to talking in public, than for people whose profession it is to talk and work in groups. Here, it is the richness of personal, inner thoughts which gives authority to speak.
Thus, at the beginning of a session, when representations must be evoked prior to more technical work, when evaluation is needed, Photolangage eases individual speech. It is then very important that the objective should not be an agreement between members of the group on the proposed question ; the aim should be to allow everybody to express his views and be listened to. This method is not suitable when a consensus is to be reached on a specific theme. On the contrary, the method allows a multiplicity of different point of views, ideas, and opinions to be heard.
b) Open and positive listening.
If people are to express themselves personally, they must be carefully and positively listened to. Any person who speaks wants to be listened to. But, to listen, to make oneself available, to center oneself on the real meaning of what is being said, is not easy.
« To listen to somebody is to invite him to a ceaseless trip from his inner self to what he thinks is knowledge for the other, and then back to his inner self, to settle there again because there is the irreducible source of his own knowledge. »
Listening is a competence, a skill which is difficult and takes time to master. But it is essential to any group-leader, and in particular to work with Photolangage.
Why ? Because, though the photos seem to be the main point of interest, about which people talk, in fact, interactions between members of the group immediately intensify when suddenly a voice is heard, filling space and bringing back people to another reality. Each member of the group discovers his own sensibility to the musicality of words, to a dramatic or playful tone of voice, to its hesitating or unrestrained rhythm. In fact, the emotional dimension in the experience of listening is fundamental. Everybody has, during his life, experienced the power of a human voice to awake emotions. The work of the group leader is to make sure that the person who talks is really listened to and that he is conscious of being listened to. The photos will be the points of reference, of centrality, around which attention is developed and ideas regrouped. To listen is not only to give attention to the words that are said, but also the capacity to join the speaker where he is, to hear what he really says, to understand where the words come from and let oneself be modified by these words. One of the tasks of the group-leader is to help this skill to develop within the group.
Therefore, the right thing to do is not to attempt to classify what is said in order to gather information and answer questions, nor to pinpoint words or experiences proper to one or another member of the group. Of course, it can be expected that some particular themes will be approached, but this is of little interest. In this particular case, the position of each participant is, a priori, impossible to foresee before doing the groupwork. If the aim of a session is to gather information, then brainstorming or written questionnaires are probably more adequate methods to be used than Photolangage.
Except when it has been previously negociated with the group, it is not advisable that the groupleader takes notes during the session. The latter is however free to organise himself and note what he wants after the work in group.
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