ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the potentialities and challenges associated with visual methodologies, dealing with some of the common issues associated with the use of visual images such as the use of photographs in conferences presentations and papers, and issues of recognition, confidentiality and anonymity. Engaging in creative representations of their lives often engenders a reflective and emotional response in participants. The chapter explores Richardson's work to examine the ethical journey he negotiated in organising a theatre commission, which focused on taking the stories back to the participants they derived from beyond the confines of the ivory tower, outside the bounded walls of words in books and texts and through spoken word and performance. The tensions between anonymity and ethical, but impactful, dissemination were also an evolving issue of concern in my own research projects; this was particularly salient in respect of accounts that raised sensitive issues such as domestic abuse, child neglect and familial violence.
