ABSTRACT
Stefanie Benjamin utilizes volunteer employed photography (VEP) to understand the roles memory, race, and historical events play in how residents perceive and value heritage sites in Columbia, South Carolina (USA). As a participatory and visual methodology, VEP allows for research to embody emotion and memories in a way that surveys and more traditional interview techniques cannot. Photography has the power to elicit emotions and feelings not easily expressed in words. Thus, by discussing with participants the photographs they took, researchers employing VEP can understand not only what participants chose to “see” in their pictures, but also what they value and remember in their lives.
