These projects share the assumption that increased participant control of data generation through production of visual images will help to highlight important aspects of lived experience that might otherwise have been overlooked or ignored by researchers.
Ricardo Gomez and Sara Vannini ([1]) introduced a variation of photovoice called Fotohistorias, that combines participant-generated photos and semistructured interviews to elicit lived experiences of immigrants and other marginalized communities.
Fotohistorias helps elicit multiple perspectives and symbols from the same image or place, emphasizing how people's perceptions and feelings shape meaning and experience.
Fotohistorias participants frequently feel empowered, heard and valued, and gain a new perspective and agency over their current situation and context.
The term photo-elicitation originated from a paper published by Collier (1957), when it was initiated as a solution to the practical difficulties that research teams were having in relation to agreeing on categories for quality housing.
Reflecting on the use of photo-elicitation, Collier (1957, p. 858), argued that ‘pictures elicited longer and more comprehensive interviews but at the same time helped subjects overcome the fatigue and repetition of conventional interviews’ and noted the technique's ‘compelling effect upon the informant, its ability to prod latent memory, to stimulate and release emotional statements about the informant’s life’.
Making a film as opposed to simply shooting footages, involves editing and other post production tasks, such as adding subtitles, but it also rests upon a series of ideas concerning the place of visual representation within social science itself.
This methodology is beneficial in its applicability to participants who may be illiterate or have difficulty communicating because of language barriers, lack of education, or a disability.
In this way visual methods of data production can act as tools of defamiliarisation, fighting familiarity for both researchers and participants and allowing space for a more nuanced understanding of the topics studies (Mannay 2010).
These activities concern individuals who feel that a particular population is being treated in a dispassionate manner or similar to scientists observing natural phenomena in a clinical way.
This category refers to a in-depth analysis of intimate, meaningful or personal places activities or spaces, and may include making judgments which could sadden or offend people.
The visual offers a range of exciting possibilities for social research but it also brings an array of challenges and ethical difficulties.