Using photographs to collect and study citizens’ perceptions of landscape degradation: a regional case in Italy

People’s perceptions play a key role in defining landscape, which is much more than the combination of visually distinctive features. In fact, as recognized by the European Landscape Convention, the character of a landscape is the result of the action and interaction of not only its natural features, but also human ones. What can we learn about landscape degradation from the way locals look at the landscapes around them? We argue that respondent-produced photographs offer an opportunity to transmit to others one’s personal view of what degradation is, and to promote critical reflection on the present state of local landscapes. This work illustrates the implementation and outcomes of a photography competition, which allowed photography lovers to capture, in a picture, not only the beauty of natural landscapes in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region (Italy), but also the aspects of everyday surroundings which were perceived to be degraded. The photography competition, complemented by photo-elicitation interviews, made the co-production of geographical knowledge possible. The photographs revealed the presence of varying, sometimes unexpected sites considered to be degraded, and the conduction of photo-elicitation interviews stimulated the collection of values and meanings attributed by informers to the landscapes selected in their pictures.