Issues of collaboration, representation, meaning and emotions: utilising participant-led visual diaries to capture the everyday lives of people in mid to later life

Katy Pilcher,Wendy Martin,Veronika Williams

doi:10.1080/13645579.2015.1086199

Abstract

In recent years there has been an increasing use of visual methods in ageing research. There are, however, limited reflections and critical explorations of the implications of using visual methods in research with people in mid to later life. This paper examines key methodological complexities when researching the daily lives of people as they grow older and the possibilities and limitations of using participant-generated visual diaries. The paper will draw on our experiences of an empirical study, which included a sample of 62 women and men aged 50 years and over with different daily routines. Participant-led photography was drawn upon as a means to create visual diaries, followed by in-depth, photo-elicitation interviews. The paper will critically reflect on the use of visual methods for researching the daily lives of people in mid to later life, as well as suggesting some wider tensions within visual methods that warrant attention. First, we explore the extent to which photography facilitates a ‘collaborative’ research process; second, complexities around capturing the ‘everydayness’ of daily routines are explored; third, the representation and presentation of ‘self’ by participants within their images and interview narratives is examined; and, finally, we highlight particular emotional considerations in visualising daily life.

Highlights

There has been much interest in the use of visual research methods in recent years, with researchers documenting both benefits and tensions for utilising various visual techniques in a variety of social arenas and to analyse different social practices.Visual methods have been argued to facilitate more participatory approaches to research, and have been cited as a means for including conventionally marginalised groups within the research process (Pilcher, 2012; Wang & Burris, 1994)
Within our discussion we have raised some crucial concerns with the collaborative potentials of using visual methods, the meanings that are possible to elicit through photographic depictions and interviews, and the necessity of considering the emotional implications of visual research encounters
We have highlighted the specific ways in which visual methods can, and do, offer a rich insight into the sometimes habitual elements of daily life, as well as providing and enjoyable research encounter for participants

Summary

Introduction

There has been much interest in the use of visual research methods in recent years, with researchers documenting both benefits and tensions for utilising various visual techniques in a variety of social arenas and to analyse different social practices (for example, see Back, 2009; Harper, 2002; Mizen & Wolkowitz, 2012; Pink, 2007).Visual methods have been argued to facilitate more participatory approaches to research, and have been cited as a means for including conventionally marginalised groups within the research process (Pilcher, 2012; Wang & Burris, 1994). The image is a particular product of the context in which it is taken, highlighting an awareness again of taking part in a research project – an activity which is already not part of the participants’ daily life ordinarily It reminds us, in a sense, of Bourdieu’s observation in relation to photographs in which people are required to ‘act naturally’ for a photograph, which results in them feeling embarrassed and acting far from ‘naturally’. There was a tension evident in some of the images taken by participants and in the photo-elicitation interviews about how they wanted to be seen or represented This ranged from specific comments over particular images to the whole visual diary being a very particular way of constructing a participant’s daily life. This turns the problematic around somewhat – for if we cannot eradicate emotional encounters within visual research encounters, we must instead continually consider the pertinent question of the function of emotions in shaping data construction, or as Ahmed (2004, p. 4) asks, considering the question of ‘what do emotions do’2?

Concluding thoughts

Notes on contributors