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1981
Volume 16, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 1757-1936
  • E-ISSN: 1757-1944

Abstract

This article identifies survivor-led ‘self-photography’ emerging in therapeutic and recovery communities and demonstrates its value as an arts-based research method, employing self-photographs made by participants in mental health contexts. The self-photograph is defined as a sociopolitical practice employed by photographers and people with lived experience of mental health issues which disrupts previous conceptual understandings of self-portraiture, community and mental health recovery. The self-photograph is considered as distinct from selfie practices and in this context contributes to survivorship narratives when shared, thereby aligning the contemporary politics and therapeutic function of self-photographs with the 1970s survivor/recovery movement. In so doing, the article challenges assumptions about the efficacy of medical approaches that affect mental health care’s treatment and the representation of sufferers. The article calls for an arts-based, participant-led and therapeutic approach for sufferers to address these issues; to self-represent, self-advocate and to recover.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
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/content/journals/10.1386/jaac_00073_1
2026-03-31
2026-04-17

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/content/journals/10.1386/jaac_00073_1
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The self-photograph: The value of participant-led visual research methods in mental health settings
Journal of Arts & Communities 16, 83 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1386/jaac_00073_1
/content/journals/10.1386/jaac_00073_1
/content/journals/10.1386/jaac_00073_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): participatory photography; recovery; self-portrait; survivor history; therapeutic photography; well-being

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