ABSTRACT
Between 2008 and 2012, I undertook ‘participatory photo elicitation’ (PPE) interviews with older adults aged 65 to 94 to explore their experiences relating to aging-in-place on Waiheke Island, New Zealand. I had expected PPE to draw me closer to the world of each participant as it is a collaborative process. However, the closeness participants and I developed during the research was surprising and at times overwhelming. As ‘the researcher’ I seemed to move between an official role and a position of empathy or friendship. Ultimately, I became entangled in participants’ lives, and this encouraged spontaneous, open and frank conversations during which personal matters were discussed with relative ease. But it also made me feel uneasy. I found that experiencing empathy toward participants and their circumstances could be disorienting because it caused me to feel anxious of my position in their lives and within the research (had I become a ‘friend’, did I want to act as an advocate for the participant, was closeness dangerous for participants?).
