Using visual methods in human rights research

Abstract

How might we use visual images in research on human rights violations? This article describes four approaches and the advantages and difficulties associated with each of them. It illustrates this with examples from research on how women in shantytowns experienced extreme poverty and state violence during the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, and on these women's coping strategies and human rights activism (Adams, 2012). The first approach, photo analysis, involves the collection and analysis of photographs showing the conditions that people experience. The second, art analysis, involves photographing and analyzing art works, in this case art works by the victims or survivors of human rights violations. The third, art elicitation, involves asking research participants to look at art works and talk about them or about subjects related to them. The final approach, the collection and analysis of ephemera with visual content, involves examining handbills, flyers, bulletins, newsletters, and the like. These visual methods are of value in and of themselves but can also serve to complement textual and other forms of data and enrich research that is primarily based on other methods.