The Framing Safety Project

Abstract

This article describes the Framing Safety Project that the author developed to do collaborative, community action/education research with battered women about the meaning of safety in their lives. The project is built on the use of participant-generated photographs and photo-elicitation interviews as methods for exploring with women, in support group settings, the meanings of violence in their lives and their approaches to creating safer spaces. Although visual sociologists have used variations of these methods, particularly to study the experiences of children, the author combines them in a uniquely feminist approach that leads from the women’s photography and interviews to a community education and action component. The author describes the process of developing and implementing this project with Mexican and South Asian immigrant women and discusses the ways in which its methodological approach serves to amplify the voices of silenced women, and to offer opportunities for community education and social action.