ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the subjective experience of closeness in UK married life using photo-elicitation and photo-production with women of South Asian origin. It focuses on closeness rather than intimacy as it can be seen to include a wider range of experiences. To understand better everyday practices in family and couple relationships, social scientists have studied people’s relationship with the material space of their homes. It has been argued that houses, rooms and objects have the power to evoke memory and emotion. When talking about emotional experiences, individuals inevitably produce ‘representations’ constrained by words, phrases and concepts that are available to them in a particular cultural context. For example existing cultural stories of ‘marriage’, ‘relationships’ and ‘South Asian women’ can become resources for individuals to use in narrating their own experiences of marriage. The use of photos of physical spaces and places where marriage and relationships are played out enables to explore memories and emotions associated with these material settings.
