Visual Sociological Data as a Social Construct

Abstract

The interpretation of visual data obtained in a field study is substantially determined by the procedure for obtaining them. The purpose of the article is to analyze the process of social construction of visual sociological data by a researcher with a camera. Visual data are contradictory. On the one hand, the data represent physical imprint of reality. This is due to the technology of photography. The absolutization of this quality is fraught with overestimation of the authenticity of photographs. On the other hand, data are created by an observer who cannot but leave his/ or her mark on their content and form. The interpretation of visual data of the field research requires to take into account the nature of this print.In the process of social construction of visual data, several qualitatively different stages can be distinguished. (1) The observer's identification of “pixels” of facts in the unbroken stream of social reality. (2) Sorting them. He/ or she gives them the status of “important”, “curious” or puts them out of the brackets of observer’s attention. The very process of creating data is already their interpretation. (3) Framing adequate to the subject of the study. (4) Selection in the frame of the element on which focusing is performed. (5) Selecting the moment of picture creation. (6) Sorting of received pictures. Some are erased for various reasons, others get into the database. (7) Processing of the picture (cropping “excess”, adjusting the focus of attention using the light level, etc.). In the process of moving from stage to stage of observation, sociological facts turn into data as material for further analysis.All sociological data are social constructs. The photographs obtained in the field study are no exception. Their reliability is ensured, firstly, by the analysis of the procedure for obtaining them, fraught with subjectification of reality, secondly, by the use of triangulation of sources, observers and methodologies; thirdly, by the reputation of the researcher.