There are provided a photoacoustic image generation apparatus and an insert that separately acquire both positional information and surrounding environment information of the insert. A puncture needle (15) is at least partially inserted into a subject. An optical fiber (19) guides light with a first wavelength and light with a second wavelength which are incident while being switched. The light guided by the optical fiber (19) is emitted from a light emitting portion (19a). A light absorption member (51) absorbs the light with the first wavelength emitted from the light emitting portion (19a), generates photoacoustic waves, and transmits the light with the second wavelength emitted from the light emitting portion (19a).
