Reflexive photography

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Afraid of foreigners and of strangers. An asylum seeker child withdraws under the table in a communal kitchen in an asylum seeker accommodation

The reflexive Photography ( latin "reflexive") is a method of social research , in the photographs for the design of an interview between researchers and subject ( Family are used). The method goes beyond documentary photography and is mainly used in sociology and ethnography (ethnic description) to examine how people perceive and interpret their living environment . Reflexive photography is a component of visual sociology as well as visual anthropology , which uses photos as well as films and videos "to study a society and its visual artifacts ".

classification

Reflexive photography is a compilation of approaches that researchers use photographs to identify, describe and analyze social occurrences. As part of the broader visual sociology , it goes back to the American sociologist Douglas Harper , who developed it in the 1980s. In the German-speaking area , the human geographer Peter Dirksmeier , among others, picked up and used the method.

Reflexive photography is divided into two concepts:

  • the semiotic approach (according to the theory of signs) uses already existing photographs, for example from newspapers, magazines or advertisements;
  • the conventional approach creates its own photographs and uses them to collect data .

Reflexive photography is one of four interview methods of the visual-sociological approach, the other three methods are:

  1. in photo elicitation (“eliciting something from someone”), photographs are presented to the test subjects for stimulation in the interview situation;
  2. in the photonovela (" picture novel "), the test subjects themselves photograph their environment over a longer period of time;
  3. In the case of autodriving ("self-propulsion"), the test persons are photographed and then provide information about themselves in the situation on the photographs.

methodology

In the process of reflexive photography, the scientific observer asks the test subject to take photographs on specific topics. The test subject photographs independently and independently of the observer. This procedure guarantees the test subject the greatest possible freedom with regard to the chosen motifs. This large scope for decision-making can also be motivating. While taking the picture or immediately afterwards, impressions, reasons and thoughts about the pictures just taken are noted. In the subsequent in- depth interview , the test person is asked about the motifs he has chosen. The person can go into their thoughts and intentions in more detail, because the photos allow them to think deeper and more retrospectively about the previously discussed topics. The method of reflexive photography includes a change of perspective because the test subject himself is the "undoubted expert on his recordings", because after an introductory arrangement he or she photographs without being influenced by the scientific observer. In reflexive photography, the observer is the layperson who only appears for the preliminary discussion and only then for the interview.

Reflexive photography allows for a high degree of contingency (openness and uncertainty of experience) instead of rediscovering a presupposed order with the help of controlled methods. The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002) emphasized, however, that the selected photographs are by no means true-to-life images, because every photographic image selects reality from the outset “ immanently ” and always depends on the subjective perspective of the photographer. The photographs arise from a subjective selection decision and are the result of a choice guided by various social norms . Each image is therefore shaped by the habitus (totality of preferences and habits) of the test subject. What is shown in the picture can provide information about normative, class-specific and aesthetic criteria as well as disclose group-specific patterns of perception , thought and action .

See also

literature

  • Anna Brake: Photo-based survey. In: Stefan Kühl , Petra Strodtholz, Andreas Taffertshofer (Eds.): Handbook Methods of Organizational Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-531-15827-3 , pp. 369-391 ( reading sample in the Google book search; reading sample on springer.com).
  • Günter Burkart , Nikolaus Meyer: Living and studying in the educational sciences department. Farewell to the Bockenheim campus. University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-9814761-6-3 , pp. 45–120 and 121–172 (examples of the process of reflexive photography).
  • Peter Dirksmeier : The Husserlian concept of image as the theoretical basis of reflexive photography. A contribution to visual methodology in human geography . In: Social Geography. Volume 2, No. 1, University of Bremen, January 2007, pp. 1–10, here pp. 6–10 ( PDF file; 73 kB; 10 pages ; Dirksmeier is a research fellow at the Institute for Geography at the University of Bremen).
  • Peter Dirksmeier: Thinking empirically with Bourdieu against Bourdieu: habit analysis using reflexive photography. In: ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies. Volume 6, No. 1, 2007, pp. 73–97 ( PDF file; 423 kB; 25 pages on acme-journal.org).
  • Peter Dirksmeier: The reflexive photography. In: Same: Urbanity as Habitus. On the social geography of urban life in the country. Transcript, Bielefeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-8376-1127-4 , pp. 163-169.
  • Peter Dirksmeier: On the methodology and performativity of qualitative visual methods. The examples of car photography and reflexive photography. In: Eberhard Rothfuß, Thomas Dörfler: Spatial Qualitative Social Research. Perspectives in human geography. Springer, Wiesbaden 2013, ISBN 978-3-531-16833-3 , pp. 83-101 ( extract from springer.com).
  • Douglas Harper : Visual Sociology. Expanding Sociological Vision. In: The American Sociologist. Volume 19, No. 1, New York 1988, pp. 54-70 (English; Harper is a sociology professor at McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts).
  • Alice Keller: Use of digital photo reading diaries to research the reading behavior of students. In: Bernhard Mittermaier (Ed.): ELibrary - shaping change. 5th Conference of the Central Library (= publications of Forschungszentrum Jülich. Volume 20). Forschungszentrum Jülich, Central Library, Jülich 2010, ISBN 978-3-89336-668-2 , pp. 33–48 ( PDF file; 1.6 MB; 17 pages on fz-juelich.de).
  • Georg Florian Kircher: Reflexive Photography: Integration of Everyday Life in Surveys - Visual Elements in Research. In: Same: place. Media. Mobility. Media connections in the daily flow of action. University of Erfurt, 2011, Chapter 6.2, without page numbers ( doctoral thesis ; online at db-thueringen.de).
  • S. Schulze: The Usefulness of Reflexive Photography for Qualitative Research. A Case Study in Higher Education. In: SAJHE. Volume 21, No. 5, Department of Further Teacher Education, University of South Africa Press, 2007, pp. 536–553 ( PDF file; 3.3 MB; 18 pages on unisa.ac.za).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Peter Dirksmeier : The Husserlian concept of image as the theoretical basis of reflective photography. A contribution to visual methodology in human geography. In: Social Geography. Volume 2, No. 1, University of Bremen, January 2007, pp. 1–10, here p. 6 ( PDF file; 73 kB; 10 pages ).
  2. ^ Compare Douglas Harper : Visual Sociology. Routledge, New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-415-77896-1 (English; Harper is sociology professor at McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts).
  3. ↑ Deborah D. Heisley, Sidney J. Levy: Autodriving: A Photoelicitation Technique. In: Journal of Consumer Research. Volume 18, No. 3, University of Chicago Press 1991, pp. 257-272, here p. 257 ( side view on JSTOR ).
  4. ↑ a b Peter Dirk Meier: The reflexive Photography. In: Same: Urbanity as Habitus. On the social geography of urban life in the country. Transcript, Bielefeld 2009, pp. 163–169, here p. 168.
  5. ↑ Peter Dirk Meier: The reflexive Photography. In: Same: Urbanity as Habitus. On the social geography of urban life in the country. Transcript, Bielefeld 2009, pp. 163-169, here p. 166.
  6. ↑ Peter Dirk Meier: The reflexive Photography. In: Same: Urbanity as Habitus. On the social geography of urban life in the country. Transcript, Bielefeld 2009, pp. 163–169, here p. 162.
  7. ↑ Peter Dirksmeier: Think empirically with Bourdieu against Bourdieu: Habit analysis by means of reflexive photography. In: ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies. Volume 6, No. 1, 2007, pp. 73–97, here p. 79 ( PDF file; 423 kB; 25 pages ( memento of the original from January 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. on acme-journal.org). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.acme-journal.org