ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the challenges of doing visual-based research within psychology. It argues that the apparent lack of systematisation is indicative of tensions within the relationship between the visual and the discursive aspects of experience, and furthermore, that these tensions should be the central concern of analysis. The chapter reflects upon one particular study, involving the use of a photo-production method with service users detained within a medium-secure forensic psychiatric unit. It discusses three modes of concern, practical, analytic and epistemic, in which a lack or an absence of clarity creates a productive tension within visual methods. The study was framed by research questions around the relationship between the material space of the unit and the experiences of mental health service users during their time detained there under a ‘section’ of the Mental Health Act.
