The Photobook Project: Empowerment through creativity

Robinson-Carter, Ellie

Abstract

The Photobook Project empowers people living with dementia through creative practice and research www.the-photobook-project.com. The project uses single-use cameras to invite people with dementia and their carers to document their current experiences, from their perspective, under themes they decide upon. For example, looking up, light or a colour. The project has been delivered across the globe, with internationally-renowned intergenerational home Humanitas Deventer (Holland), intergenerational relay race Run Tomo (Japan), Dementia Dogs (Bulgaria) and across the UK. Photography used in this way as a qualitative research tool - termed ‘photovoice’ - has often been used as an engaging and empowering research tool for older people (Myssyuk & Huisman 2019). It enables us to see an experience from the person’s own perspective - since the person makes a decision to press the button and document a specific moment, object or environment.
Single-use cameras are more accessible and user-friendly than digital equivalents - with a lens to look through, a simple wheel to wind on and button to press, which older people and those with dementia
find more familiar and easier to use.

Citation

Robinson-Carter, E. (2024). The Photobook Project: Empowerment through creativity. Journal of Dementia Care, 32(1), 23-25

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 14, 2023
• Publication Date: 2024-01
• Deposit Date: May 14, 2025
• Print ISSN: 1351-8372
• Publisher: Hawker Publications Ltd
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 23-25
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/5176915
• Publisher URL: https://journalofdementiacare.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/JDCJAN24.pdf