Picturing a home: A new perspective on home-making through photo-elicitation

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Citation for Previous Publication

Link to Related Item

Abstract

Description

The photo-elicitation method can provide rich insights into homemaking – the process whereby residents use, modify and personalize domestic space. However, previous studies have prioritized the words of participants, gathered in follow-up interviews, over photographs themselves. This paper presents an alternative methodological approach. Specifically, we approach photographs as primary sources, with a focus on their composition. First, we demonstrate how formal elements of photographs can be identified, and their meanings analysed. We show that domestic photographs speak to people’s relationships with their homes, and identify empirical insights into scale, light and absences. Second, we combine data from follow-up interviews with formal analysis of images to confirm these insights, and generate additional findings – e.g., regarding the negotiation of domestic architecture and the meanings of possessions. We conclude that photo-elicitation studies of homemaking benefit from both visual and narrative insights into participants’ homes, and that both types of data merit serious analysis.

Item Type

http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85

Alternative

Other License Text / Link

Language

en

Location

Time Period

Source