Visual Methods
DTC Qualitative Research Methods
Dr Alice Mah
Department of Sociology
a.a.mah@warwick.ac.uk
Lecture Outline
Visual sociology and visual methods
Discussion (10 minutes)
I. Analysing existing images
II. Producing visual methods during fieldwork
Ethnography
Photo-elicitation interviews
Spatial visual methods
Discussion (10 minutes)
Conclusions
Visual sociology
 ‘Seeing comes before words… and establishes our place in the
surrounding world.’ (John Berger, 1977, Ways of Seeing, p. 7)
 Visual material is a central to the social realm, not simply a way we can
study. We cannot understand social life without considering the visual
aspects of social life.
 Brief history of visual methods: 19th-20th century: photo-journalists and
documentary photographers, use of film and photography in social
anthropology, social investigators and social reformers as
photographers; visual sociology established in 1980s, developed in the
1990s, and is now increasingly popular (digital age).
 Visual methodologies produce rich data, are open to a range of
interpretations, and can provide insights into producers of visual
material, consumers of visual material, and social contexts of image
production and consumption.
Visual methods
 Three types of visual methods (Banks, 2001):
1. making visual representations (studying society by producing
images)
2. examining pre-existing visual representations (studying images for
information about society)
3. collaborating with social actors in the production of visual
representations
 Different types of visual material
 two-dimensional pictures- drawings, maps, diagrams and charts,
photographs, paintings, etc.
 moving or electronic images, for example TV, video and film, websites
 material objects themselves, such as toys, homes, streets, signs
 Visual methods can be used as stand-alone methods or as
complementary with other qualitative methods such as interviews and
participant observation.
Discussion: 10 minutes
What insights can the production and/or
analysis of visual materials contribute to our
understanding of the social world? What
disadvantages does their use have?
I. Analysing existing images (e.g. from an
archive, a family album)
 What we seek to do is to ‘place photographs in the social
world, bringing them “to life”’ (McAllister 2006)*
 Some suggested methods of analysis:
Banks- analyse the internal and external narrative
Rose- meaning is produced at three sites, so need to
explore all of them
Chalfen’s ‘events’
Numerous other concepts and methods, e.g. ‘memory
work’ (Hirsh 1999, Kuhn et al 2006)
Think which works better for your picture, use to set
yourself questions, focus your vision.
*K. E. McAllister (2006) ‘Locating memory’ in A.Kuhn and K.E. McAllister (2006)
Locating Memory , NY: Berghaus Books, p. 1.
Analysing existing images: Banks
To understand the meaning of an image, need to find and use clues to
produce two stories:
 The external narrative—‘the social context that produced the image and
the social relations within which the image is embedded at any moment
of viewing’.
 The internal narrative… ‘its content, the story that the image
communicates’ .
Identifying the external and internal narrative:
 The materiality of the picture may provide many clues; you can derive
clues from the photograph by considering it as an object as well as an
image. Helpful to know what is written on back, whether postcard or
snapshot, etc.
 If the picture is in an archive, it will help to know which file it is in (Which
other pictures? Whose documents are they? How were they used?). You
may need to do further research (Can you identify the people in the
picture through other sources?)
(Marcus Banks 2003, p. 11)
Analysing existing images: Rose
The ‘sites’ at which the meanings of an image is
constructed:
The site of the production of the image
The site of the image itself
The sites where it is viewed by various
audiences, who are reading and using it in
various ways.
(Rose, 2001, p. 16-32)
Analysing existing images: Chalfen
 Think of photograph as a series of events that went into its
making and use- for instance planning the picture behind the
camera when taking it, what was happening front of the
camera, what was happening at each different times of use.
Then we can ask questions ask about each state the following
questions:
 Who were the participants?
 In which setting did the events take place?
 Which topics were addressed? (family relationships, for
instance)
 What message form does the image take? (Christmas card)
 What code is it embedded in? (realistic, romantic, etc)
(Chalfen 2000)
Analysing existing images: compositional
analysis
Content--what story does the picture tell?
Colour -- hue, saturation (vividness, depth),
value (lightness, darkness)
Spatial organization
Focus-what position are we offered as a
viewer?
Light- type and intensity of light (candlelight,
daylight, etc)
Expressive content--the ‘feel’ of the image
Example: Family albums and domestic
photography (Rose 2003; Chalfen 2000)
Interest originates with feminist sociology and
art studies in the 1980s
Brings social character of the private sphere
into the picture
(Changing) character of gender relations is
illuminated by family snaps
Cultural variability of family photography and
its uses, including their display in albums, in
domestic space, etc.
II. Producing visual data during fieldwork
 taking photographs or videos from field research to
illustrate/reveal research themes
 photo-elicitation interviews
 participant photography or video recording
 ‘spatial’ visual methods (ethnographic and site observations:
body language, streets, buildings, public places, movements,
gestures, social interactions, walking methods)
 drawing maps and diagrams
 discussing photographs, images, or other visual materials with
informants
 visual diaries (your own or your informants’)
* We will focus on just a few of the many possibilities here…
Photographs in fieldwork
Elizabeth Chaplin (2002) ‘The Residents of South
London Road’
Photo-elicitation interviews
 Photo-elicitation interviews: researchers introduce
photographs into the interview context
 Photographs may be researcher-produced, existing
photographs, or produced by research participants
 Three main uses of photographs (Harper, 2002):
1.
2.
3.
As visual inventories of people, objects and artefacts
As depictions of events that are part of collective or institutional paths
(photographs of schools or events)
As intimate dimensions of the social (photos of family, friends, the self,
the body)
 Advantages: ease rapport, provide structure, prompt
questions, richer data, greater balance of power dynamics
 Challenges: confidentiality, ethics, trust, technical skill,
sensitivity to context, power relations
Example of photo-elicitation ‘autodriven’ interview instructions, ClarkIbáñez
Clark-Ibáñez: photo-elicitation images
Clark-Ibáñez: photo-elicitation images
Byrne and Doyle: photo-elicitation with focus
groups, using existing mining images
Byrne and Doyle: photo-elicitation with focus
groups, using existing mining images
Les Back: participant street
photography, Brick Lane, East London
Les Back: participant street
photography, Brick Lane, East London
Spatial visual methods
 ‘Spatial’ visual methods: concerned with relationships
between people and places/spaces (communities, cities,
neighbourhoods, homes, public spaces, parks, rural spaces,
natural spaces, confined places, policed places, political
places)
 Diary-photo diary-interview method (Latham), time-space
diagram, diary, photo and interview as complementary
 Material culture studies (Miller) people’s relationships with
objects, photos, materials
 Site observations (drawing maps, photographing areas of
research; spatial part of ethnographic lens)
 Mobile methods: researching while on the move (participant
and/or researcher), conducive to spatial research
Spatial visual methods:
walking methods and psychogeography
 ‘Walking whilst talking’ (or driving or on public transport):
research participants guide researchers through places: city
streets, neighbourhoods, shops, churches, parks, and talk
about meanings, memories and ideas related to places.
Informal, good for rapport, multi-sensory, rich material.
 Psychogeography: researchers explore the social and
psychological impacts of places on people; primary method
through researcher walking and observing. Earlier
antedecents: Walter Benjamin’s flaneur and George Simmel’s
Metropolis and Mental Life, 1903; ‘founded’ by Guy Debord
1955, contemporary example: Ian Sinclairs’s London Orbital).
Criticisms: spectator/voyeuristic/detached/popular.
Driving tours with research participant in
Ivanovo, Russia: Mah
Driving tour with research participant
(taxi driver) in Walker, Newcastle: Mah
Discussion (10 minutes)
What are some key ethical issues that relate
to using visual methods in fieldwork?
How might these ethical issues be addressed?
Conclusions
 Visual methods capture multi-dimensional, rich data.
 Analysing photographic images gives us insight into the social
institutions, like the family, and social practices in which they
are produced and viewed.
 The production of visual images is itself a social practice
which helps to define and constitute social life.
 We can use images to gain a vivid view of how people see
themselves and their environments, and how they locate
themselves within them.
 Participant photography can give us greater access to
marginalised groups and to sensitive topics (but risk of power
imbalance and ‘using’ vs. empowering /giving real ‘voice’) .
 Ethical issues of confidentiality, informed consent, trust and
power relations.
References
Anderson, J. (2004) ‘Talking whilst walking: a geographical archaeology of knowledge’, Area
36(3): 254-61
Banks, M. (2001) Visual Methods in Social Research. London: Sage.
Chalfen, R. (2000) ‘Interpreting Family Photography as Pictorial Communication’ in J. Prosser,
ed. Image-Based Research, London: Falmer Press.
Chaplin, E. (1994) Sociology and Visual Representation. London: Routledge.
Clark-Ibanez, M. (2004) ‘Framing the Social World with Photo-elicitation Interviews, American
Behavioral Scientists, 47(12), 73-89.
Hirsch, M. (ed.) (1999) The Familial Gaze .Dartmouth College Press
Knowles, C. and P. Sweetman (eds) (2004) Picturing the Social Landscape.London: Routledge
Kuhn, A. and K.E.McAllister (eds) (2006) Locating Memory: Photographic Acts. NY: Berghaln
Books.
Pink, S. (2001, 2007) Doing Visual Ethnography. London: Sage.
Prosser, J. (ed) (1998) Image-based Research. London: Falmer.
Rose, G. (2003). ‘Family Photographs and Domestic Spacings: A Case Study’ Transactions of the
institute of British Geographers 28 (1): 1-18.
Rose, G. (2001) Visual Methodologies. London: Sage.
Sinclair, I. (2002) London Orbital: A Walk Around the M25, London: Penguin.
Wright, C.Y. et al (2010). ‘Visual research methods: using cameras to empower socially excluded
black youth’, Sociology, 44 (3): 541-558.