ABSTRACT
Analysis and interpretation of images are often inextricably linked, raising the need for considerable reflexivity on the part of the researcher. This chapter provides an introduction to key issues in analysing different kinds of visual image, including still and moving images, and artefacts. It introduces: content analysis; discourse analysis; grounded theory; interpreting images; and analysing moving images. It includes two worked examples of analysis of photographs to clarify key issues in this type of analysis, including ethical issues, areas of focus and questions raised for the researcher, not least the utility of ideology critique here. In both examples, the chapter indicates alternative possible interpretations of the visual image, some of them contradictory, and this raises the suggestion that visual data often benefit from being used in conjunction with other, explanatory types of data. In considering a visual image, the researcher can focus on the subject matter, its form, its genre, its meanings, its composition, its style and technical matters. However, the researcher can go further, to examine the context of the image, its audience, its provenance, why it was taken, its usages and, indeed, the ethical issues that it raises.
