Negotiating access, ethics and agendas: Using participatory photography with women anti-mining activists in Peru

In this paper, we critically explore the use of photovoice with a group of women anti-mining activists in the city of Cajamarca, Northern Peru, in order to understand the opportunities and challenges that the photovoice method presents for research with activists. We begin with an overview of participatory photography and photovoice approaches, before outlining the specific context of this research and providing a detailed methodological discussion of the photovoice process and the practical and ethical considerations of using this approach with women activists. We critically analyse the ways in which using photovoice with activists raises a particular set of issues to be negotiated in relation to access, ethical considerations, and the competing agendas of activists and researchers. We situate these debates in relation to existing literature on the use of participatory photography and photovoice in the global South, especially with women, and speak to broader literatures on researching activism and activists. We argue that participatory photography provides important opportunities for co-production of knowledge in research with social movement activists, and has a valuable role to play in enabling participants' own agendas to shape the research process and outputs, but also recognise the particular challenges that are presented by using this approach with women activists.