Auto-Photography

Abstract

Auto-photography is a research method that utilizes the photographic activities of research subjects. Typically, research subjects take their own photographs and submit these to the researcher, who then analyzes them. The primary purpose of auto-photography is to produce visual representations from the viewpoint of research subjects, rather than researchers. Auto-photography stands in comparison to ethnographic methods that elicit textual or verbal data or that rely on participant observation. Textual data more typically characterize much of social scientific qualitative research; therefore, auto-photographic data offer alternative, self-produced, and visual ways of knowing about the material and imaginary worlds of research subjects. The use of auto-photography in research projects also encourages photo elicitation, which is verbal or textual data derived from interviews or conversations in which participants explain how and why they decided to take their particular photos. While the production of photos by research subjects offers different sorts of data for geographic research, the issue of how to incorporate visual data in a field like human geography that has heavily relied on textual analysis is an important one to consider. Auto-photography raises questions about the politics of representation, or how researchers can adequately incorporate their research subjects’ viewpoints, interests, and identities.