Visual Sociology
I got interested in visual methodology almost by accident. I was, and still am, interested in any methodology that minimizes the power differential between the researcher and his/her participants. Creating a more egalitarian research environment is not only in line with my personal values and ideals but also promises to generate new information that could not be accessed in any other way. Some visual methods, such as photodriving, photointerviewing and participant photography, are particularly useful for setting up a more equitable research relationship. I utilized all of these in an attempt to understand the daily lives of homeless individuals in a Nashville, TN. I had found through personal experience that the services set up to serve these individual were not being fully utilized and yet there was still dissatisfaction from the homeless community members I spoke with that there were not enough resources provided. My research was an attempt to discover why this mismatch existed. I handed disposable cameras out to homeless individuals and then interviewed them with the pictures. The only instructions I provided to them were to take pictures of the people, places and things that were important to them in their daily lives (see example above). The first paper to come out of this research is a methodology paper about the limitations of visual methodology. Darren Newbury, [Visual Studies 2008:23(1)] the editor of Visual Studies, writes that the
article picks up the idea of participant photography as a means of empowerment. Whilst participatory visual methods are often assumed to offer a means of empowering populations that are marginalized or less powerful, in his study of homeless men living in Nashville, Tennessee, Packard explores how difficult this can actually prove in practice. Without discarding visual methods or the commitment to shifting the ethical agenda in favour of participants, his article asks questions that many such studies would do well to consider.
In the future, I hope to continue with projects like this one and incorporate policy suggestions and art installations based on the photographic and interview data in an effort to make academic research more practical and applicable to real-world problems and issues that local communities face.
You can find a link to a preprint of the paper, not suitable for citation purposes, here. This is a preprint of an article whose final and definitive form has been published in Visual Studies 2008 23(1) copyright by the International Visual Sociology Association. Visual Studies is available online at: http://journalsonline.tandf.co.uk.
