The Photograph in Theory

Elizabeth Chaplin

Sociological Research Online, 2005, vol. 10, issue 1, 141-177

Abstract: This article gives an account of an ethnographic project which relied on the use of photography: the project involved taking photographs, asking for responses to them, and then analysing both photos and responses. Anything that plays a central role in an ethnographic project requires theoretical consideration. So, as the account of the project proceeds, the photos are considered from different theoretical viewpoints; and an emerging and subsequently recurring theme is the tension between what a photo shows and what a photo means. Discussion of this tension develops into a more general critique of the ways photos are theorised in social science. I conclude that the photograph in social science theory is at present a sad phenomenon, and that in order to remedy this situation, we should seek help from outside social science.

Date: 2005
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socres:v:10:y:2005:i:1:p:141-177

DOI: 10.5153/sro.964

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