Date: August 4, 2020
Khulisa recently held a learning session to explore visual methodologies in evaluation. In this blog we take a look at three key methods and how they can be applied:
- Autophotography: Asking participants to take photographs of their environment and then using the photographs as actual data. It captures the world through the participant’s eyes with subsequent knowledge production
- Photo elicitation: Using photographs or other visual mediums in an interview to generate verbal discussion to create data and knowledge. Different layers of meaning can be discovered as this method evokes deep emotions, memories, and ideas
- Evaluation validation: Documenting the evidence of an event using photographs to, for example, compare sites of observation in before- and after photos
For further reading and more methods, you can also download the presentation from the Visual Methods learning session and consult the sources below:
- An informative, non-academic website documenting the history of visual communication
- Visual Cultures in Science and Technology – A Comparative History, a textbook by Klaus Hentschel on the intersection between technology and the rise of visual culture
- Gillian Rose’s handbook Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials (2016) – now in its fourth edition
- Visual Method Culture – A blog by Prof Gillian Rose
- A YouTube video in which Prof Rose gives a lecture on visual research methods
- An academic article by Xanthe Glaw, Kerry Inder, Ashley Kable and Michael Hazelton on Visual Methodologies in Qualitative Research: Autophotography and Photo Elicitation Applied to Mental Health Research
