Selection of Press and Celebrity Endorsed Quotations
‘PhotoVoice is working to bring new voices to photojournalism: hear the world through their eyes.’
Sebastiao Salgado, photographer
‘PhotoVoice projects enable people to stand proud on a platform and ‘tell it how it is’. They give voice to the very people who aren’t often given the opportunity to express themselves to the world. There is something very profound in these collaborations, simply put, they have found new ways of telling the truth, and in doing so they are reaching audiences that may not have previously been ready to listen.’
(Dr) Benjamin Zephaniah, author, poet, musician (London, UK)
“Since its launch PhotoVoice has established itself as a pioneer in the sector, winning widespread support with the public and media and sharing its unique project methodologies with groups all over the world. With a tiny income it has accomplished great things, training socially excluded groups in photojournalism skills to give them a voice. Its students have gone on to study at university, found work in the photographic industry and have been commissioned by the BBC”
UK Charity Awards 2004, PhotoVoice: Best New UK Charity
‘PhotoVoice offers marginalized groups, including many children, the skills of ‘participatory photography,’ visual literacy, and a powerful universal language to express their ideas and represent their realities to the rest of us.’
Carol Bellamy, Executive Director, UNICEF
‘The exhibition offered us, adults, an opportunity to realize that we, ourselves, should view life from another angle.’
On Street Vision, Saigon Times Weekly. 13 March 1999
‘A View of Life on the Street as No One Else Can Show it.’
On Street Vision, Los Angeles Times. July 1999
‘The pictures draw us into their world. We can not sit back. We are forced to enter it.’
On the Rose Class, The Kathmandu Post. 19 November 2000
‘The photographs on the gallery walls were taken by HIV-infected women. ………they are an attempt to educate the Congolese public, but also to jolt the affluent and complacent West.’
On Positive Negatives, The Independent. 29 November 2000
‘PhotoVoice is a genuine example of how a form of social entrepreneurship can be used not only to raise funds – but also the roof.’
Morning Star. 4 October 2001
‘The 25 year-olds want to encourage documentary photography, through enabling those who have traditionally been the subject of such work to become it’s creator.’
Amateur Photographer. 19 January 2002
‘A Side Gallery-originated project, working alongside PhotoVoice, First Sight has given children a unique opportunity…….First Sight is documentary photography at its best. Simple and above all, brutally real.’
Newcastle Metro. March 2002
‘Negative Portrayals of refugees and asylum seekers are being challenged.’
On Transparency. The Guardian. 19 June 2002
‘What I learnt from perhaps my most well-known photo 'Afghan girl' is that people are increasingly interested in the context of images, of the life behind the face as it were. I went in search of Sharbat Gula again because so many people asked me who she was, what she did and whether she survived. After seeing the work from the 'Bibin' project in Afghanistan I realised the images and writing from PhotoVoice projects intrinsically provide this intimacy and understanding. Through PhotoVoice projects people like Sharbat Gula are given the vital opportunity to tell their stories for themselves.’
Steve McCurry, National Geographic and Magnum photographer
‘The illusions of consumerism and great power militarism have contaminated journalism and diminished one of our most basic rights: that of the freedom to express a diversity of views. I congratulate PhotoVoice on its excellent work - by imparting photo-journalism and documentary skills, PhotoVoice becomes a vital force for liberation, and deserves all our support.’
John Pilger, journalist and broadcaster
‘It’s like a Fellini film, all this despair, and at the end, this sense of optimism.’
George Carrano, PhotoVoice US Volunteer, The New York Times. 10 July 2004
From PhotoVoice Participants:
‘At the beginning I thought photography was magic, now I am a photographer myself and I can train others in photography. I will never forget this training and what it has done for me. Even if I die tomorrow I die knowing that I have been able to document my life through photography.’
Julie Salima, Positive Negatives, photography by HIV+ women, D.R of Congo
‘People have to understand what a big difference there is between our different countries. It is like the difference between night and day. I don’t think anyone comes like a tourist, just coming here to have fun. I don’t want to be a refugee but I was not given any choice. I don’t want people to call me refugee. I want to be seen as everybody else. I believe people are all the same. So, you are English and I am a refugee. What are you that is more than me? I think like that but other people think other things’.
Bajram, Transparency Project, photography by young unaccompanied refugees in London, 16 years, from Kosovo.
‘These women, for the most part rejected, scorned, ridiculed by those that know them, are now among the very few women photographers this country has. From now on they have more than just the means to earn a living, they have a tool which allows them to express their ideas and their feelings in an artistic way. In brief, they can now contribute to the reconstruction of this country, their country, by educating the population through images that they themselves have produced.’
Bernadette Mulelebwe, Fondation Femme Plus director, Positive Negatives, photography by HIV+ women, D.R of Congo.
‘I know nothing about peace. Since I have been aware of who I am there has been fighting. We can show people in our pictures that war is very bad because we lost our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, hands, legs, arms, heads - everything. Peace is the most important thing.’
Sakina, age 14, Bibin – Shooting Kabul, photography by street-working girls in Afghanistan.
‘My hope was to be able to express disabled people’s thoughts and wishes to society but I never got this chance until I joined the SARPV photography program. I am very interested in this work and in taking pictures of disabled people. I will feel so proud if disabled people can get their rights.’
Rahahdul, age 20, PhotoVoice / Healthlink Worldwide project with disabled youth, Bangladesh.
I was totally shocked at how a photograph in a person's hand would enable someone who finds public speaking impossible to stand in front of a group and speak confidently about their very personal fight with the illness that they have... PhotoVoice, in my opinion, has and can continue to make lifetime changes to people's lives.
Phillip Stone, Support Worker, PhotoVoice project with United Response with participants suffering from mental illness, UK.