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What is Visual Sociology?
From: Levy, A. & M. Solda 2008: New Ways of Seeing: Visual Sociology and Gender Studies. Paper presented at the
European Feminist Research Conference, Utrecht, June 2009.
“Sociology, it is clear, needs visual tools.” (Harper 1988: 68)
Visual sociology – the use of visual data in sociological research – is an emerging new field of inquiry in the
discipline, attracting ever-growing attention in the last two decades. Remarkably, despite long visual traditions in
related fields like anthropology, cultural studies or critical journalism, the inclusion of visual approaches into
sociological studies has been essentially absent until recently. Historically, sociological research has relied heavily on
text- and statistic-based analysis creating a professional standard that has mostly remained skeptical of visual studies
as a means of inquiry – which in part explains the “marginalized” location (Grady 2001: 83) or even the “complete
rejection” (Harper 1988: 58) of visual sociology by mainstream sociology. But the emergence and wider distribution
of new technologies – like digital photography and video or the internet – as well as the founding of professional
organizations1 and the publication of peer-reviewed journals2 has contributed to growing interest in visual studies and
a wider acceptance of visual sociology in the discipline at large.
Visual sociology is an umbrella term for a set of different visual approaches, which can be divided into two major
areas of inquiry: the sociological analysis of visual representations of social relations; and the use of different visual
media such as photographs, film or video to document and analyze social phenomena. Or, in simpler words from one
of the early treatises on visual sociology: “some sociologists take photographs to study the social world, whereas
others analyze photographs others have taken” (Harper 1988: 55, emphasis in original).
Being intrinsically interdisciplinary in its approach, visual sociological studies draw from a variety of theoretical
sources and employ various methodological tools, taken from e.g. cultural studies, visual anthropology, semiotics,
documentary photography, art history, or sociology. Thereby, due to the aforementioned traditional absence of visual
research in sociological inquiry, the field still refers mainly to standard introductory works from other disciplines, like
Collier & Collier’s classic Visual Anthropology (1986), Pink’s Doing Visual Anthropology (2001), Sturken &
Cartwright’s Practices of Looking (2001), Rose’s Visual Methodologies (2007), or Prosser’s Image-Based Research
(1998). So far, there have been only a few books and anthologies published that focus exclusively on visual sociology
and its particular methodology; examples are Chapin’s Sociology and Visual Representation (1994) or Bank’s Visual
Methods in Sociological Research (2001). Other works that have achieved a “classical” status to some extent in the
field include books and essays by Howard Becker (1974; 1981), John Grady (2001), Douglas Harper (2002), and John
Wagner (2002).
According to Rose (2007), the following methodologies have been developed for the study and interpretation of visual
culture in society, which by no means are mutually exclusive but on the contrary, are often used in combination by
visual researchers.
First are non-participatory methods, mostly concerned with the interpretation of already existing images – like
photographs, ads, or film – their content, meaning, and agency in society. When working with such “found images”,
the first step of analysis often involves either compositional interpretation, for a limited number of images, or content
analysis for the systematic engagement with large numbers of images by developing coding categories relevant for a
particular research question. Semiotics, or semiology (the study of signs), involves an even more detailed analysis of
the structure and effects of images in the search for their “visual meaning” (103) beyond mere content and
composition, allowing for more attention to reflexivity and contextuality. Discourse analysis takes this look outside of
the actual image even further by analyzing a text’s or image’s intertextuality, i.e. the way they are “embedded in the
practices of institutions and their exercise of power” (193) and thus become part of the production of social difference
through discourses as well. Photo-documentation is the only research method in this category not making use of
‘found images’ but instead involves the researcher systematically taking pictures (or using video recordings) as
evidence for subsequent interpretation in light of his or her research question.
Second, participatory methods extend their focus to involve the perceptions and interpretations of viewers and users of
images. For example, audience studies use both interviews and ethnography to explore the ways various kinds of
‘audiences’ decode images3 and engage with them by taking into consideration viewer’s social modalities and existing
social power relations. Photo-elicitation is “based on the simple idea of inserting a photograph into a research
interview” (Harper 2002: 13) to evoke memories and associations, to prompt more intense conversation and eventually
give deeper insight into participants’ feelings, experiences and interpretations. The images used in photo-elicitation
can either be “found objects”, or be taken by the researcher or by the researched. In case of the latter, studies often
make use of a method called photo-voice: after initial interviews, participants are given cameras to document certain
aspects of their lives; those pictures are then analyzed and interpreted using photo-elicitation. A variation of photo1
For example the International Visual Sociology Association (IVSA), or the Visual Sociological Study Group of the British Sociological
Association.
2
For example Visual Studies (formerly Visual Sociology), published by Routledge.
3
Most audience studies have actually focused on viewer’s reactions to TV programs.
1
voice are studies using moving images, e.g. by asking participants to keep video diaries relating to a particular research
topic. It should be said that photo-documentation, photo-elicitation and photo-voice – as well as their variant using
video or documentary film – are the most widely used methodologies in visual sociology to date.
Existing research in visual sociology has covered a wide variety of topics, from critical analysis of advertisements
(Goffman 1979), to ethnographies of agricultural communities (Harper 2001), street vendors (Duneier 2001) or
different immigrant populations (Gold 2004), to studies in medical sociology and gerontology (Stein Greenblat 2004)
or gentrification processes (Venkatesh 2002), to name a few. Methodologically, most studies that are not solely based
on content analysis combine the use of photography and video with other ethnographic methods like participant
observation and in-depth interviews. Very few projects have dared venturing into the visual-only realm, as for example
Duneier and Venkatesh who both turned their ethnographic studies into documentary films – after the publication of
their books. As mentioned above, the continuous hesitation to explore research topics by solely relying on visual
means might be due to the discipline’s persistent dismissal of visual studies as “scientific” research.
Last but not least, what new insights does visual sociology have to offer for the discipline at large? In general,
researchers assert that visual research methods are valuable tools to create a more inclusive, more active, more
participatory research process and eventually yield a more elaborate research result. Visual inquiry adds a new,
sensory dimension, or “unique knowledge to sociology” (Harper 1988: 54) – a dimension largely ignored by
traditional sociological inquiry. Including people’s visual experiences, their “ways of seeing” or “practices of
looking”, the search for “visual meaning”, and considerations of different ways of representation and reception in
research of sociological relevance has been described as enriching sociological inquiry and enhancing our
understanding of social relations and social phenomena (Gold 2004; Rose 2007; Becker 1974). By going beyond the
notion of pictures as mere illustrations, “thinking, writing and talking about and with images not only can make
arguments more vivid, but also more lucid” (Grady 2001: 84). Especially participatory visual methods are considered
“promising” as they confront “a seminal issue in sociology of getting at the point of view of the subject – Weber’s
concept of verstehen – in a novel and effective way.” (Harper 1988: 66; emphasis in original)
Another important consideration when assessing a new field of inquiry is the application of its methodology within the
framework of already existing methods. According to Gold (2004), one of the major debates within visual sociology is
concerned with “the extent to which the visual should be treated as the primary object of analysis or if images should
be used as one of many tools available” (1552). While some scholars insist on images as the center piece of their
investigation and “berate the use of images as illustrations” (1552) – a position often combined with the intent to
establish visual sociology as a valid method of inquiry – others use visual methods in combination with other forms of
information and inquiry, and as means to improve the research process in general, e.g. through photo-elicitation.
References
Banks, M. (2001). Visual Methods in Sociological Research. Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage.
Becker, H. (1974). Photography and Sociology. Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication 1: 3-26.
Becker, H. (ed.) (1981). Exploring Society Photographically. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Berger, John (1972). Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin Books.
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Collier, J., & Collier, M. (1986). Visual Anthropology: Photography as a research method. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
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