The tactility and visibility of kissing

Abstract

This chapter aims to offer a detailed analysis of the embodied and sensuous organization of kissing, approached from the perspective of ethnomethodology and multimodal conversation analysis, as a subtly coordinated intercorporeal practice. On the basis of video-recorded family photography sessions, this chapter considers kissing as both an occasioned intimate practice and a social action. In particular, the production of family portraits, captured by the photographic eye, reveals how kissing is interactively orchestrated as a tactile, visible, and public phenomenon. We demonstrate the intercorporeal configurations of parents and their children, in which the kissing bodies progressively come in closer contact with each other, touch, kiss, and finally disengage from one another. The chapter reveals the fine-tuned organization of kissing in public space and how kissing – in front of the camera and for the camera – displays an affectionate and intimate relationship for future spectators, who will later view the photographs.