Thirteenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

While the gradually developing fields of ‘visual social science’ involve more than using (static) photographic image technologies, this paper provides a systematic and critical discussion of photography-based methods: ranging from analysing existing or ‘found’ visual data of a variety of sources, the production of visual materials by the researcher, to approaches that try to actively involve the field through using visual materials in interview situations, or to prompt the subjects of research to become producers of their own visual data and views, and finally to the emerging opportunities to ‘communicate’ insight in novel, more ‘expressive’ ways. Photography as a technology and a multifaceted cultural practice clearly entertains varied and very significant exchanges within the social sciences but there is still a considerable amount of unrealized potential. Technological innovations need to be interrogated in terms of their specific advantages and limitations and translated in novel methodologies to become serviceable to research. They may literally expand our field of vision but at the same time they also involve more radical redefinitions of the position of the researcher and the researched, both in literal and more metaphorical sense. Moreover, it is important to focus on the multimodal opportunities afforded by combining different expressive systems rather than trying to play out them against each other. More solid and explicit methodologies may help to rectify misconceptions around the use of visual media and entice more researchers to consider these tools as viable and complementary options for doing truly empirical social science research.