ABSTRACT
Influenced by Cartesian dualism, privileging mind over body, the discipline of psychology has focused its attention on sites of specific psychological functionality (e.g. cognition); a practice which often abstracts ‘the body’ from social, relational and embodied psychological experience. This chapter suggests ways in which pre-existing photographs and photo-production methods are suited for and can be utilised in the context of the theoretical and methodological framework for exploring embodiment. It explores two examples of using photographs in the context of two empirical studies. The first study used pre-existing photographs in exploring women’s embodied experiences at different life stages and over time, whereas the second study used photo-production in exploring women’s current experiences of embodying pleasure in everyday life. Contextualised within the post-structuralist phenomenological framework, it can be argued that the exploration of pre-existing photographs and participant-produced photographs allows accounts which tap into and are grounded in lived experience.
