four note friday 2.5 | Photovoice Apps, Part 1
The process of writing this post helped me realize I needed to break it up into two parts. Here in Part 1, we canvas the landscape of photovoice apps. And in Part 2, we'll dive a bit deeper. Please read on.
Being old enough to remember when photography was completely analog and the public Internet did not exist, I've spent a fair amount of time reading and thinking about photovoice project logistics in a deeply digital era. The ubiquity of screen-based culture has made an indelible impression on how photovoice is done in 2026. And it's a lot different than it was in the early 1990s—in the previous millennium [chortle].
My very first photovoice project involved disposable cameras and film. It was 2010. The use of that particular technology wasn't too, too awkward then, far less awkward than it would be now. It was also much more expensive. Each 24-exposure camera, and we used up 13 of them, was picked up from participants, taken to the local camera shop (which no longer exists), developed, scanned, and printed as 4" by 6" photographs. When I picked up the results at Jack's in downtown Muncie (RIP), I got doubles (IFKYK), all the film negatives, and a photo CD. How very vintage.
In this moment in my current location, doing that/having all that done would be far more laborious than it was then. In short, I cannot presently see an opportunity wherein I would infuse film photography inside a photovoice project. A very large budget, copious time in the hands of participants-co-researchers-collaborators, and a very unassailable rationale would be needed to do so. Those conditions are not especially realistic. Furthermore, while fine art photography and photovoice may have some overlap, photovoice is not about creating fine art. Plus, smart phone photography has come a long, long way.
Enter this post. I've often daydreamed about the existence of a photovoice app that would help people create accessible spaces—whole ecosystems even—for co-creating and co-facilitating projects easily and seamlessly from their smart phones. Rather than asking participants to upload their photos (digitally) here, meet for the focus group (digitally) there, and then engage in ongoing communication with folks (digitally) here, what if all that could happen in one place, knowable and prepared ahead of time?
I do not presently have the skills, time, or money to create such an app—though I wish I did. However, after some searching online just a few years ago when working on this idea with my then doctoral assistant, I learned that such things do exist. Sort of. Most of what currently exists does not seem to be built for (targeted toward) scholars, community organizers, or nonprofit organizations. And some of these tools seem to be for industry.
Upon Googling photovoice app on this day and in this very moment, much like I did those few years ago, the first three returns will comprise the first three notes of this post. See the screenshot below for a preview. In my fourth and final note, I'll provide links to some examples of how photovoice facilitators have used Instagram as a photovoice app of sorts to make projects come to life.
And then next week, we'll dive a bit deeper. Let's overview the landscape first.
EthOS
Alright, I am no expert on search engine optimization (SEO), but both EthOS and Indeemo were my top returns—with the word photovoice in the returned URLs— likely thanks to some crafty SEO work. EthOS and Indeemo seem quite similar and are likely competitors. And in short, companies are selling marketing research tools. And neither of the companies that sell these tools openly publish their prices. You have to reach out with interest to learn more.
Now, to be sure, market researchers are not facilitating photovoice projects. However, if a market research company can frame academics and colleges and universities as customers, why not, I guess?
Here is an EthOS product demo.
Indeemo
Indeemo is a technology company selling market research tools. Here is a promotional video.
And here is a video from the company's founder.
Indeemo has quite an expansive video library on YouTube as opposed to EthOS, which has a smaller footprint within YouTube. Through these videos you can get a sense of what the products, or photovoice apps, are like.
And it seems like Indeemo is a bit more keen to partner with colleges and universities and the academics who work in higher education. For example, here is a website showing published academic research wherein researchers used the product: https://indeemo.com/publications
PhotoVoice Connect
PhotoVoice Connect is a tool offered by the British charity called PhotoVoice. While I read just about everything I could find about it online, and I still cannot be sure, I think this tool is used solely to facilitate projects run by PhotoVoice. What I was able to find was not very detailed or specific. In other words, it appears to be an internally used tool. It does not appear to be a something anyone can use, purchase, or subscribe to.
In the video from the Indeemo founder embedded above, he described Indeemo as similar to a private or closed social network and like Instagram in terms of UX/UI (user experience/user interface). And this makes perfect sense, as we've seen the use of social media platforms—and Instagram specifically—within/as vehicles and storage containers for photovoice projects before. See here and here for some examples. While Instagram is an apt tool for photovoice projects, it was not created with photovoice projects in mind. It was designed as/is a photography-forward social media platform (owned by Meta Platforms, Inc.) that photovoice project facilitators have repurposed for research use.
In Part 2 of this two-part post, I am going to further explore the publications shared on Indeemo's website. My goal is to better understand whether academic researchers are actually using EthOS and or Indeemo within photovoice projects, and if yes, what that might look like. More next week!
🥹 Thanks for spending a moment with me this Friday.
💌 If you’re new here, welcome! I hope this space becomes one you look forward to each week.
📬 Have a question you want me to answer in a future issue? Reach me at photovoicefieldnotes@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you.
Thanks for being here.
Warmly,
Mandy
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