ABSTRACT
This chapter moves from notions of visuals as a means of introducing secondary data to attend to the roles of photographs as producing data. Drawing upon methods of respondent-led photo-elicitation and visual auto -ethnography, it resituates respondents as the producers, creators and indeed, directors of the visuals encountered during the research process. As Wang and Burris (1992) and Warren (2005) suggest the processes of producing and introducing photographs into the research setting gives respondents ‘photo -voice’ as power and control is renegotiated from researchers to respondents. This chapter explores the ways in which visuals (in particular photographs) become central to accessing embodied spaces of encounter as they not only offer respondents comfort and reassurance, but facilitate the ‘connection’ between researcher and respondent as knowledges are transferred and shared. Thus, visuals create spaces of understanding as the potential arises to transcend the limitations of verbal discourse and open spaces for creativity, reflection and comprehension. However, while realising the opportunities such methods afford, the chapter will also consider the limitations that inevitably arise through the use of such techniques.
