Unanticipated voices? Reflections from our ongoing ‘adventures’ with participant-authored photography, interviewing and interpretative phenomenology

Abstract

Using participant-authored photography to inform and complement the collection of interview data is increasingly popular in Psychology but reflective accounts of issues faced by researchers and participants remain scarce. We therefore present a critical commentary on some of the unexpected outcomes that have emerged during recent studies on health and disability which have employed this approach. Under the theme of ‘ unanticipated voices’ we discuss some of the challenges we have experienced around data gathering, interpretation, presentation and dissemination. We consider methodological, theoretical and ethical challenges for this paradigm and some of the challenges involved in publishing this type of work. • Incorporating photographs within interviews offers opportunities to understand people's lived experience of illness and disability at a deeper and more contextualised manner. • There are important ethical, theoretical and methodological debates about how photographs are shared, prepared for publication and other forms of dissemination. • Photographs are powerful and engaging tools for dissemination and advocacy However, using photographs should be underpinned by a critical and reflexive consideration of the nature of ‘voice’.