There is an old saying that a picture is worth one thousand words. The origins of the phrase are elusive and, in our view, inconclusive, but the longevity of the trite phrase can be credited to its undeniable truth: Images can communicate volumes. This special issue of Departures in Critical Qualitative Research focused on advancing photovoice methodology to better account for Blackness, Black people, and Black epistemologies within the approach. Black scholars have situated the utility and power of marrying imagery and inquiry before photovoice was coined and developed. As Black scholars, we believe you cannot get to the present or the future without going through the past. As we conclude this issue, we situate the work of Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot as integral to the process of bringing art and science together and want to acknowledge her in this work as we turn toward the future.
Lawrence-Lightfoot (1983) introduced portraiture as...
University of California Press