ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the topic of visual and creative research methods by providing a concise overview of the use of particular techniques and approaches in the social sciences. It conceptualises researcher initiated productions within the documentary tradition and visual ethnography, emphasising the importance of reflexivity in moving beyond the reductive realism that characterised earlier work. In the category of researcher initiated productions, researchers are the ones holding the paintbrush, sketching the outlines or behind the camera; and, in particular, it is the camera that has been employed to substantiate objective, scientific and reductive realism. The hierarchical ordering of race was presented as evidence of western supremacy in which the reductive realism of the photograph was employed to maintain and enforce a prejudiced regulatory system. The chapter highlights the ways in which contemporary visual studies are situated within a body of historical and interdisciplinary work, which can help to guide and inform our practice.
