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  "description": "Earlier this week, I was spending time in my on-campus office thinking about how it needs a refresh. After working at the institution for 15 years, it's become equal parts office and storage unit. As I was looking around at the space and daydreaming about what might be possible, I took a toy off one of my shelves and started playing around with it for a few moments.\n\nWhich toy did I take off the shelf? It was a new/vintage RetroViewer with a custom reel a former student of mine created as part o",
  "path": "/four-note-friday-2-17-photovoice-and-the-view-master-toy/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-24T21:14:33.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.photovoicefieldnotes.com",
  "tags": [
    "RetroViewer",
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    "here",
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    "pricing guide",
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  "textContent": "Earlier this week, I was spending time in my on-campus office thinking about how it needs a refresh. After working at the institution for 15 years, it's become equal parts office and storage unit. As I was looking around at the space and daydreaming about what might be possible, I took a toy off one of my shelves and started playing around with it for a few moments.\n\nWhich toy did I take off the shelf? It was a new/vintage RetroViewer with a custom reel a former student of mine created as part of a photovoice project we facilitated back in 2018. This video provides a wonderful overview.\n\nDuring the spring of 2018, I embedded a photovoice project into one of my courses. See here for some details. During the class, my graduate students (framed as researchers) were paired with community college faculty (framed as participants/collaborators/co-researchers). Together, these pairs and I carried out a photovoice project focused on faculty orientations to their students.\n\nAs part of this project, one of my students, Dr. Rosalinda Ortiz (lead author of the journal article linked above), created and ordered a View-Master-style reel with her match's photographs (photo) and excerpted quotations from their interview (voice) about the photographs in a 3-D image amalgam. We hosted what I would call a rather conventional photovoice exhibition (see below for our event flyer), to which Dr. Ortiz brought the RetroViewer and invited guests to play around with.\n\nThat RetroViewer has been on a shelf inside my office for eight years (see above image; red arrow points to the toy). And this past week, I rediscovered it. And this rediscovery got me thinking.\n\nAll that said, this week's post is going to be about leveraging the novelty of the View-Master children's toy within photovoice projects—especially in conveying the main learnings from a given project and the policy changes that may be recommended when considering those learnings.\n\nAll of this week's notes below start with the word _consider_. And before diving in, the most point of view to _consider_ when deciding how to convey the key points of the project is the participants'. Do not make these decisions on your own. Make the decision in collaboration with those with whom you are working.\n\n* * *\n\n## Consider the Exhibition (broadly defined) Budget\n\nIt's certainly _not_ impossible to curate and host a photovoice exhibition without funding. Equipment can be borrowed. Images can be projected instead of printed. And you might be surprised at what and how much folks are willing to donate!\n\nAll that said, RetroViewers and custom reels from Image3D, while, very, very cool, are certainly _not free_. (Please note there are no sponsored posts here.) So budget considerations are key in deciding whether this is a road you want to take.\n\nAt the same time, if you are seeking funding for your upcoming photovoice project through grants or awards, here is the pricing guide from RetroViewer.\n\n## Consider the Audience\n\nAudience is another key consideration here. While I (a card-carrying member of Gen X) would love to play with one of these things, a younger person might not have any clue or care at all about the toys of yesteryear.\n\nCulture is another important consideration. Do the cultural backgrounds of potential attendees and location of the event mesh well with staring into a View-Master? This video gave me a chortle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAOMWYxC-pY\n\nAs emphasized above, work and collaborate with participants to the extent they are willing!\n\n## Consider a Gift\n\nMany photovoice projects and exhibitions I have either been a part of or attended have provided guests with some kind of gift or take-away item—a one-page event program, a keepsake like a bookmark, or even a pamphlet with images from the project.\n\nCould a View-Master be an appropriate gift to remind attendees of the project? Perhaps one with information about how to _do something_ about what they have seen or now know more about?\n\nFor example, one of the images on the reel could include a list of action steps, the phone number of their area representative(s), or a (simple) URL where they can learn more.\n\n## Consider the Pull of Analog Novelty\n\nIn our increasingly digital world, analog novelty has a unique pull. Could this be leveraged in your context? In my book, I write about the concept of _photographic objecthood_ and how that might matter in the context of photovoice. I am reminded of that when considering the View-Master.\n\nThere is a difference in the way we, as humans, engage with images projected onto a wall or screen, an 8\" by 10\" printed photograph, and the reels of a View-Master. We typically have no kinestetic engagement with a projected image; it is to be looked at. Yet we can look at _and_ touch a print, turn it over and see if there are words on the back. Hold it close; hold it at a distance. We can show it to someone. With the View-Master, the engagements become ever-more complicated and nuanced. What is it that we want our exhibition attendees to do, to feel—to _think_?\n\nCould the pull of analog novelty be just the thing necessary to engage a specific audience about a critical topic that needs their attention?\n\n* * *\n\nConverting a photovoice project into a (series of) View-Master reel(s) may or may not be in the cards for you. But it is certainly worth considering, as is evident above. I'd love to know what you think of this! In addition, what are other ways we can creatively bring more attention to photovoice projects?\n\n* * *\n\n🥹  _Thanks for spending a moment with me this Friday._\n💌  _If you’re new here, welcome! I hope this space becomes one you look forward to each week._\n\n📬  _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._\n\nThanks for being here.\n\nWarmly,\n**Mandy**\n _photovoice field notes_\nphotovoicefieldnotes.com",
  "title": "four note friday 2.17 | Photovoice and the View-Master Toy",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-24T21:14:33.709Z"
}