by Tom Larkin
One of the first groupwork and personal development techniques I learned, while working with a youth organisation almost 50 years, ago was a French method of self-expression and group process called “Photolangage”. It became a tried and trusted method that I employed effectively over the years in a variety of formal and non-formal educational situations with children, young people and adults. When we invite images in Focusing, they usually come from the body and we usually ‘see’ them in our mind and sometimes express them with art materials on paper – an inside-out approach. However, we can also work from the outside-in like in Photolangage.
Basically, Photolangage, as an in-person exercise, involves laying out a set of 17cm X 25 cm black and white photographs, usually on the floor, or a big table, about four photos per person in the group. The participants are given a prompt e.g. “Allow a photo to present itself to you which best answers the question – ‘Who am I?’ or ‘What does community mean for me?’ or ‘What is really important in my life right now?’ etc.” They are then asked to slowly walk around the room viewing the photos, as they might paintings in a gallery, until one photo seems to jump out at them and ‘answers’ the particular question posed for them.
I have always been amazed at how doing this seems, for a lot of participants, to bypass the thinking or judging part of the brain and, more often than not, participants are surprised by what emerges for them. Readers who are familiar with Focusing will be familiar with this kind of experience. For this reason, I believe that Photolangage works perfectly with Focusing. In the same way as when we read a poem and the poem as a whole, or perhaps a verse or just a line resonates with something inside and there is a ‘shift’, the image/photo does something similar at a symbolic level. Maybe words will come after, or not but in the moment, something in the image has represented the person’s inner experience and it is felt in the body as a change in some way. Some of you reading this may remember workshops I did with the then Irish Focusing Professionals Support Group in 2018 or with the IFN in 2022.
Of course, finding (and paying for) sets of photographs can be difficult nowadays. In that case you can curate your own sets of photos/images from postcards, Tarot, Oracle or other game decks (that don’t have names or words printed on them), photo or card sets from online retailers, images from books or magazines which can be laminated for multiple uses.
What I have described above applies to working with groups and the method can also be used individually. It is important to formulate a question (a wondering, a curiosity) first e.g. How am I about this decision I have to make? Then lay out the cards/photos/images on a table, asking yourself your question and allowing an image (or two) to stand out from the rest. If the image does not feel like the ‘right’ one you can always look for another or allow an image to emerge from your body. This method might be particularly useful for Focusing on one’s own or as an alternative when a Felt Sense is not easily forthcoming.
