In our work, photographs become starting points for discussions, boundary markers for self-disclosure, and tools for communication that help participants from different backgrounds to understand their similarities and differences. Seeing through someone else’s lens brings the person behind the lens into focus. Relational bridges are built. A shared sense of purpose results, not just in a singular photograph, but in the narratives found in the artwork and attitudes of participants who complete a project with a shared sense of meaning, purpose, and agency.

Admittedly, experiences of Interfaith Photovoice are not uniform. One Grand Rapids participant, for example, confided that the friendships that were built were still somewhat “superficial” and did not extend beyond photovoice sessions. This should not be much of a surprise since so many factors are involved in making friends (e.g., available time, shared interests, gender, race, social class) and moving people through the stages of friendship (e.g., from acquaintance to casual friend, friend, and close friend) was not necessarily the intent of this project. Our goal was not that people would enlarge their circle of close friends through photovoice, as gratifying as that might have been. Instead, we set out to create an opportunity for people with different religious identities to become acquainted with one another, learn from one another, engage their communities, and experience some level of personal or collective change. Looking back, these aspirations were realized, even though they may have been experienced unevenly by individual participants or expressed differently at each research site.