What’s in an image?: Towards a critical and interdisciplinary reading of participatory visual methods

Abstract

Drawing on theory from sociology, anthropology, education, cultural studies, contemporary art and health, this chapter sketches out what a critical and interdisciplinary reading of participatory visual methods (PVMs) might look like for researchers and practitioners. Grounding my analysis in the use of photo-based methods’ I invite researchers and practitioners to challenge our assumptions about the inherent potential of PVMs, by intervening in common appeals to PVMs ability to empower, transform, or re-distribute power relations in and of themselves. Such simplistic accounts of PVMs as fun, empowering, and transformative in-and-of-themselves may serve to obfuscate power relations, and restrict our ability to engage with the nuances, ethical tensions, and specific opportunities that working with specific visual art forms provide. To demonstrate this, I look to three theoretical areas: photography and the ‘truth effect’; photography, representation and visual literacies; and the rhetoric of participation. I conclude by reflecting on the implications of these critiques for PVMs more broadly, so that we can engage in a more nuanced discussion about the methodological opportunities and tensions of this work.