Questions of process in participant-generated visual methodologies

Visual methodologies are becoming more evident in social research. These methodologies encompass media such as film, video, still photography, electronic visual media, and material artifacts. In this article, the author examines the use of drawings as a research tool used as an adjunct to other social research methods. Using examples from two studies, she illustrates how drawings can be used to explore the ways in which people understand illness conditions. She argues that the act of drawing necessitates knowledge production, with a visual product as its outcome. Although the examples presented in this article are limited to illness conditions, she argues that drawings offer a rich and insightful research method to explore how people make sense of their world.

Photo elicitation studies have attracted modest attention in qualitative health research. However, few researchers have focused exclusively on men's health and/or illness experiences. In this article, the authors discuss the benefits of using photo elicitation among a sub-cohort of 19 prostate cancer survivors from a larger ethnographic study. Specifically, participants were asked to imagine that they were being paid to mount a photographic exhibition entitled Living With My Prostate Cancer, an exhibition that would show prostate cancer from their unique perspective. The authors subsequently discussed the photographs with the participants during individual interviews using photo elicitation techniques. The methods provided some unique and unanticipated benefits, the details of which the authors share to guide researchers considering similar approaches. In addition, the authors make specific recommendations for future photo elicitation applications to men's health research.