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International Journal of Social

Research Methodology
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Young People's Constructions of Self:

Notes on the Use and Analysis of the
Photo‐Elicitation Methods
Rosaleen Croghan , Christine Griffin , Janine Hunter & Ann
Phoenix
Published online: 11 Sep 2008.

To cite this article: Rosaleen Croghan , Christine Griffin , Janine Hunter & Ann Phoenix (2008)
Young People's Constructions of Self: Notes on the Use and Analysis of the Photo‐Elicitation
Methods, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 11:4, 345-356, DOI:
10.1080/13645570701605707

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 Int. J. Social Research Methodology
Vol. 11, No. 4, October 2008, 345–356

Young People’s Constructions of Self:

Notes on the Use and Analysis of the
Photo-Elicitation Methods
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Rosaleen Croghan, Christine Griffin, Janine Hunter &

Ann Phoenix

International
10.1080/13645570701605707
TSRM_A_260423.sgm
1364-5579
Original
Taylor
02007
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rosaleencroghan@hotmail.com
RosaleenCroghan
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and
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Francis
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Research Methodology

The article examines the use of photo-elicitation methods in an ESRC-funded study of

young consumers. Participants were asked to take photographs of consumer items that were
significant to them. These were subsequently used in recorded interviews as a trigger to elicit
the discussion of the relationship between consumer goods and identity. The analysis
focuses on how the features of visual representation influence the versions of identity that
are presented. We show how participants both accommodate to and exploit aspects of the
photographic image in creating their accounts. This is achieved by using the visual image
to bolster identity claims and employing the verbal accounts to edit and contextualise the
identity implications of the visual image. We suggest that the photo interview offers partic-
ipants an opportunity to show rather than ‘tell’ aspects of their identity that might have
otherwise remained hidden. It may therefore be a useful tool for researching contentious or
problematic identity positions.

Introduction
In recent years photo-elicitation methods or methods in which the oral and the visual
are used in tandem have become increasingly popular as methods of collecting data in

Dr Rosaleen Croghan is a Research Officer at the Psychology Discipline, Faculty of Social Science, The Open
University. Correspondence to: Rosaleen Croghan, Psychology Discipline, Faculty of Social Science, The Open
University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK. Tel.: 01865718316; Email: rosaleencroghan@
hotmail.com. Christine Griffin is Professor of Social Psychology at the university of Bath, UK. She has a long-
standing interest in representations of youth, femininity, and young women’s lives, and a more recent interest in
the relationship between identities and consumption for children and young people. Janine Hunter was a
Research Fellow on the project reported here. Her research interests include ethnographic studies of consump-
tion and youth subcultural styles. Ann Phoenix is Professor and co-director of the Thomas Coram Research unit,
Institute of Education, University of London. Her research interests include social identities, gender (femininities
and masculinities), racialisation, young people and consumption, motherhood, transnational families and narra-
tive constructions of experience and memory.

ISSN 1364–5579 (print)/ISSN 1464–5300 (online) © 2008 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/13645570701605707
 346 R. Croghan et al.
the social sciences. In this method photographs are taken by and then discussed with
the participants in order to explore the subjective meanings that are attached to them
(Prosser & Schwarz, 1998, p. 124). The arguments for using photo-elicitation as opposed
to word-only interviewing is that such methods elicit more concrete information, act
as a trigger to memory and are likely to evoke a more emotional many-layered response
in participants (Collier & Collier, 1986; Samuels, 2004).
In common with the move from realism to the social construction of identity within
the social sciences, in photo-elicitation methods the focus has been shifted from seeing
the visual as an objective representation of the other (as in much early anthropological
work) to seeing it as a collaborative enterprise between observer and observed (Evans,
1999). Photo-elicitation methods appear to offer a way of gaining insight into the
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other’s perspective by asking the photographer for their interpretations of the visual
and in the process gaining greater access to their constructions of self. For this reason
there is now more emphasis on methods that involve using the participants’ own
photographs. These, it is argued, are more likely to bridge the culturally distinct worlds
of the researcher and the researched (Berger & Mohr, 1982; Harper, 2002).
However, while visual and linguistic data appear to enrich one another and to elicit
more elaborate verbal accounts, the specific ways in which these accounts might differ
from purely verbal interviews have not been examined. There is frequently an assump-
tion that the visual will act as a trigger to an oral response or that the visual and the
verbal will somehow strengthen one another, without examining the ways in which
they differ as modes of representation, or the problems that arise for researchers
attempting to interpret them.
In this article we use data from a study of young people and consumption in which
photo-elicitation methods were employed, in order to examine the kinds of accounts
that photo-elicited interviews trigger. We argue that visual data need to be understood
as products of particular contexts, genres and sites of elicitation that are quite as
complex as those in which verbal accounts are produced. We consider the different
contributions of visual and verbal accounts and how they work together in the
construction of identities.

The Study
The photographs to which we refer here were part of a larger study funded by the
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).1 The aim of the study was to investi-
gate the intersection between patterns of consumption of goods and the construction
of youth identity. The study employed a range of research methods, including ques-
tionnaires, informal interviews with young people both individually and in groups in
schools and interviews with, and observations of, young people involved in cultural
activities related to consumption.
Here we consider the part of the study in which 28 participants recruited from the
schools in which group and individual discussions had taken place were given 35 mm
single-use disposable cameras with 24 frames and asked to take photographs of
consumer goods that were of significance to them. The aim of this strategy was to use
 International Journal of Social Research Methodology 347
photo-elicited accounts to enrich our understanding of the young people’s perspec-
tives. Because we relied on photographs taken by the young people themselves, we
hoped to gain insight into the young people’s perspectives, rather than imposing our
preconceptions on them (Holland, 1997).
This strategy resulted in 28 participants taking cameras and agreeing to take photo-
graphs. Eight participants were from Year 12 (aged 16–17), and 20 were from Years 8
and 9 (aged 12–14). Eleven participants described themselves as white, eight as Asian,
four as black and five came from a variety of other ethnic backgrounds. Twenty-six sets
of photos were returned because in two cases participants took the photos together.
Twelve of the photos were taken by participants in the Oxford/Milton Keynes sample
and 14 from the Birmingham sample. The disposable cameras were returned to the
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research team who then printed two sets of photographs on the understanding that they
would keep one set and return one set to the participants at a subsequent interview.
Interviews were carried out separately by two members of the research team, one based
in Oxford/Milton Keynes (RC) and one based in Birmingham (JH).
Each participant was interviewed at a venue of their choice (most often in their own
home). On three occasions groups of two or three friends were interviewed together.
Participants were asked to comment on each photograph in turn. The images were
sequenced in time on the film and were (generally) discussed in this sequence, that is,
in the order they were taken. However, in the course of interviews, informants chose
which photographs they wanted to prioritise and placed more emphasis on some than
on others.
Each interview was informally structured and lasted between 30 and 45 minutes.
Participants were invited to tell the researcher about each photograph, what it repre-
sented and why they had taken it. These initial prompts produced focused and detailed
descriptions with little guidance from the researcher. At times we asked for clarification
about objects and settings, asking, for example, where the photograph was taken and
asking also about the relationship of the photographer to the people in the photograph.
This often led to a more general discussion of family life, relationships and consumer
preferences.

Analysing the Photographic Data

In keeping with social constructionist approaches, we viewed the photo interviews as
forms of self-accounting which were attentive to the expectations associated with the
production and reception of particular identities, both in the immediate and in the
wider social context. The interpretation of this material raised a number of issues that
highlight some of the limitations and possibilities of using photo-elicitation as a way
of understanding the construction of identities. These centred on the status of the
photographs as representative indicators of personal lives, the ways in which the
images and identities were constructed and the kinds of accounts elicited by these
constructions. Some of these concerns are common to all social constructionist
approaches to identity. For example, the discursive turn in the social sciences informs
us that neither identity nor its representation can simply be ‘read off’ from the data,
 348 R. Croghan et al.
since each is a function of a particular context of elicitation (Schlegloff, 1997). Because
of this, we needed to formulate some notion of context that accounted for the produc-
tion of the particular images and for the verbal accounts that the photos produced
(Price & Wells, 1997).
Our first problem in analysing the photographic data was in deciding on the status
of these images as windows into participants’ lives. The images produced needed to be
understood not simply as authentic representations of self but as a product of the task
that was set and how this was framed, and of the time and opportunities afforded to
participants in two to three weeks in which they were in possession of the camera. We
also needed to bear in mind that the nature of the photographic equipment itself struc-
tures the image and to some extent defines what is represented. At the simplest level
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this means noting what the camera can, and cannot, do in terms of representing the
visual and in terms of the options it gives to photographers. For example, the cameras
we provided had inbuilt flash, which made shots inside buildings possible. However,
they had automatic focus and so did not give the young people artistic choices about
aperture and shutter speed. The use of single-use disposable cameras also severely
limited participants’ editing options. Furthermore, because we developed the films, the
young people did not choose which images were printed, though they could choose to
withdraw their consent for particular images to be used in the research process.
Most of the research fieldwork was carried out between 2002 and 2003 at a time
when digital cameras were beginning to replace film and to increase the options for
editing the image both within and outside the camera. Our study, therefore, provided
limited editing options at a time when other modes of photographic production were
increasing editing possibilities.
Genre is also likely to have influenced the images produced. Photography is a genre
which has particular expectations attached to it about proper subject matter, framing
and presentation (Evans, 1999). It also has its own sub-genres, ranging from the
formally posed to photo-documentary and personal fun photography (Berger & Mohr,
1982). In giving young people disposable cameras, we invited them to participate in
a genre of personal snapshot photography that has a particular history and set of
expectations associated with it.
As Holland (1997) notes, snapshot photography is an intimate, often domestic genre.
It celebrates the everyday life of participants portraying them as they would wish to be
seen, in moments that reflect the best rather than the worst of their experience. In addi-
tion, everyday amateur photography typically covers a limited variety of composition,
subject matter and styles that reflect the fantasies and desires of their time (Watney,
1986). Not surprisingly then, the images produced by the young people were likely to
conform to the general expectations of fun photography. This is particularly so for teen-
agers, since adolescence is constructed as a time of fun and freedom from responsibility
(Griffin, 1993), both of which are likely to stylise photographic representations as upbeat
and positive.
While given the constrictions of context equipment and cultural expectations, we
have noted, it is important not to overstate the representative significance of these
images, the young people did have a number of choices open to them in terms of what
 International Journal of Social Research Methodology 349
to photograph and how to frame and group these elements. Thus it seems reasonable
to infer that to some degree, the photographs they produced reflected the participants’
preferences. In common with verbal interviews, these photographs could be read as
exercises in self-presentation in which participants emphasised particular positively
sanctioned aspects of self, often along predictable, gender-related lines. Thus boys
tended to present photographs of themselves engaged in typically ‘male’ activities,
emphasising masculine preferences and pursuits (football, collecting model cars, etc.),
while girls emphasised stereotypically feminine preferences and pursuits, such as
clothes, make-up or sleepovers.
The photographs also tended to mark the spatial boundaries and arenas in which the
young people constituted their individuality, supporting recent studies in cultural
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geography and discourse analysis that emphasise the importance of place for identity
(Dixon & Durrheim, 2000). Bearing in mind that these may be photographs of oppor-
tunity, the setting of the photographs was likely to reflect the young people’s typical
and/or meaningful orbit. Hence the majority of photographs were taken in school play-
grounds, homes and back-gardens and a number in localities where significant events
took place. The emphasis in these photographs was not so much on how often places
are visited but on their significance for the photographer.
We needed to interpret the intentions behind the photographs with caution, since,
as we have noted, many of these photographs were likely to be photographs of oppor-
tunity. There were, for example, a large number of very similar photographs of school
playgrounds in our collection.
Here we drew on Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (1996) analysis of the ways that choice
of shot in images brings about relations between the viewer and the persons or items
represented. They note that the direct gaze in photographs invites an imagined social
response. On the other hand, an indirect or averted gaze invites a sense of objectifica-
tion of the subject presented. Kress and Van Leeuwen also note that aspects of framing
direct the visual reading so that, for example, a long shot skews the reading towards
distance and close-ups suggest intimacy.
As visual cultural anthropologists note, all forms of visual representation are likely
to be culturally specific (Turner, 1991). Though it is impossible to infer what forms
of cultural mediation were present, what we found in this group of ethnically diverse
British-born teenagers was that the photographs were remarkably similar in the choice
of shot over all participating ethnic groups. The most common shot by far was of a group
of friends posed together, facing the camera in mid-shot or at portrait distance. With
only one or two exceptions, all the photos were posed in a similar way. Participants
favoured groups of friends or family members, taken at low- or mid-angle, which in
western culture denotes equality and familiarity between photographer and subject. The
photographs were of groups of same-aged friends, often matched in gender and ethnic-
ity, posed with arms around each other, facing the camera, smiling and having fun. The
majority of these photographs were not only self-consciously posed but include subjects
who were actively performing for the camera in ironic or humorous ways. In these
photographs all participants seemed to be constructing a particular view of teenage
identity as a fun time in which friendships are paramount.
 350 R. Croghan et al.
Race and cultural background appeared not so much in the choice of shot as in the
choice of subject matter, that is, the preference for showing friends from a similar
ethnic background or for showing culturally specific artefacts. The vast majority of
friendship shots showed friends who were from the same racialised groups as the
photographer. One Year 8 black girl, for example, presented 26 photographs of her
mainly black female friends at school, one of her brother, one of posters of black singers
on her bedroom wall and one of an African mask. Her priority was, therefore, the pres-
entation of a black identity, as opposed to a presentation of herself as a de-racialised
teenage consumer. This was in marked contrast to the group discussions in which she
participated, in which race was hardly mentioned. Thus the participants in our study
appeared to be prioritising both a strong youth identity and a strong ethnic identity
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within the framework of a western cultural tradition of visual representation.

Re-appropriating the Identity Task

Our introduction to the photographic task had reflected our preoccupation with the
extent to which consumer goods are incorporated into an individual’s sense of identity.
Thus while we had asked participants to photograph subjects that were important to
them, we had emphasised commodities rather than people and had placed particular
emphasis on consumer goods. However, the participants themselves defined to what
extent and in what ways their photographs emphasised their identity as a consumer.
The majority of the photographs taken by participants were not of commodities but of
people. Of the 582 photographs we received, only 104 (17.9%) were of commodities
alone. The rest were of people (418 or 71.8%) or of significant places (68 or 1.2%). The
majority of the photographs of people were of friends (346 or 59.5% of total photos)
and to a lesser extent of family (62 or 1.1% of total photos).
Thus our preoccupations as researchers were not necessarily the participants’ own.
In effect they re-appropriated the task we had set them, retaining control over how they
were presented and what they presented to us. Participants presented visual and verbal
accounts that emphasised familial and relational aspects of their experience as opposed
to its commodification. They thus resisted any tendency to present themselves as shal-
low or over-commoditised. Their accounts can thus be seen as an illustration of the
‘consuming paradox’ that Miles (2000) has described, in that young people were using
consumer goods as markers of style and individuality, while at the same time resisting
the inference that they were too closely allied with consumerism.

Accounting for the Photographically Presented Self

There are particular issues that arise when interpreting a photo-elicited account as
opposed to one based on a purely verbal exchange. If we see the photo-elicited account
as a product of a particular context, we are driven to ask: ‘why this utterance now?’
(Antaki & Widdicombe, 1998). What particular kinds of identity work are occasioned
by being confronted in an interview by a photograph that participants have been asked
to take as a reflection of their lives and identities? We suggest that the presence of the
 International Journal of Social Research Methodology 351
photograph is likely to occasion a particular kind of self-accounting that is partly, at least,
a response to the special features of visual (as opposed to linguistic) representation.
The key feature of visual representation is that it fixes a moment in time, allowing
that moment to be scrutinised in detail and dissected (Van Leeuwen, 1999). Another
key characteristic of photography is its dependence upon, and reference to, a physical
person or object at the time of the original exposure. It therefore gives the illusion of
capturing ‘authentic’ identities. The photo-elicited interview thus produces a particu-
lar kind of account, one that deals with and accommodates the uncompromising fixity
and seeming authenticity of the photographic image as a representation of self.
As Barthes (1977) notes, photography has a certain ambiguity arising from the
discontinuity between the moment recorded and the moment of looking, making the
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photograph amenable to a range of subsequent interpretations. Photo-elicitation

invites the viewer, in this case the photographer, to bridge that moment of discontinuity
in order to invent a story that explains the photograph. The effects of photo-elicitation
are thus not merely additive. As soon as a photograph is used in conjunction with words,
they together produce an effect of certainty, even of dogmatic assertion (Kress & Van
Leeuwen, 1996).
Since photography as a medium has a tendency to freeze and reify events, it can
exacerbate the voyeuristic gaze and can represent identities in stereotypical ways that
follow lines of power and knowledge in society, for example, in sexist and racist ways
(Evans, 1999). Because the visual image is uncompromising in its establishment of
physical associations, it occasioned identity work to regulate the extent of that associa-
tion and its implications for the individual.
The photo-elicitation interviews allowed the young people to expand on the content
of the photographs, distancing themselves from, or exploiting, the uncompromising
visual claims they appeared to sustain. The photo-elicited interviews in our study were
often used to clarify and repair any problems in the presentations of self in the photo-
graphs, and of the consequences of that presentation in a broader social context.
Participants often commented directly on the motivation behind their photographic
choices. This gave them an opportunity to downplay or to emphasise the significance
of their choices and so to ward off any potentially adverse judgements about their taste
or lifestyle choices.

Softening the photographic identity claim

One illustration of the tendency to repair the uncompromising associations of the
photographic image appeared in discussions of brand identity. Brand identity has
become an increasingly important factor in the identity projects of individuals and
particularly teenagers in recent years (Lury, 2004). The young people in this study were
no exception and were acutely aware of the consequences of brand association, and
would position themselves carefully in relation to brands in both the purely verbal and
photo-elicited interviews. However, in the photo-elicited interview the uncompromis-
ing nature of the visual image occasioned a marked degree of explanatory or repair
work in relation to issues of branding.
 352 R. Croghan et al.
When items were clearly branded in the photographs, they tended to produce
accounts that clarified the speaker’s relationship to the brand either by heightening or
by lessening the association. This verbal editing of the visual image extended to all
aspects of physical appearance. Participants provided numerous accounts of why
friends were not looking their best or explained why the image of the individual
presented did not have verisimilitude and was not typical. In these accounts they
softened the visual association implied in the photograph and referred to other possible
images that had not been captured in the photographic moment.

Using the visual image to enhance aspects of identity

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While the uncompromising associations produced by the visual image might be

softened in the verbal account, the photograph could also be used to enhance poten-
tially questionable associations and to pre-empt possible counter arguments.
The most pronounced example of this in our study was Keith, a 14-year-old boy,
who presented a set of photos almost exclusively taken at a local rock music venue. The
people he photographed were almost exclusively male, older than Keith and marked
out by a particular music-based, male-orientated style. In his choice of venue and
activity, Keith established his credentials as a rock fan and, through the clothing and
lifestyle presented in the photos, as a member of a particular teenage culture, a
‘Greebo’. The visual and verbal evidence together bolstered his claim to be street-wise
and anticipated the possible counter argument that Keith was too young to claim such
an identity.
Keith’s favourite photograph, shown below, is one in which he is posed with the
band who were playing on the night in question. (His face is obscured since photo-
graphs of young people who are less than 16 years old cannot be published without
their parent’s permission, and he did not give the researcher access to his parents.)
Keith: The best one is that.
Int.: You and the band.
Keith: Me and the band because like I made friends with all of them. Cause like all them
signed like a CD for me because I made friends with them outside when they were
playing football. They’re all from West London. They were all born and raised in
West London but he’s called the Big Show. He’s proper sound because he gave
me a quid last night to get a couple of drinks and I said I’ll give you the change
back.
Int.: Right.
Keith: He didn’t, he said ‘na, don’t worry about it’ (…) and…
Int.: So how old are they then?
Keith: They’re all like 18.
Int.: Yeah.
Keith: 18–19 but they all act like 12-year olds, which is cool. They’re so cool.
(Year 8 white male, Milton Keynes)

The photo-elicitation method affords ample opportunity for the buttressing of

identity claims, in that photography, as we have noted, tends to underline and verify
verbal claims in ways that are not available through verbal means alone. Keith, in
 International Journal of Social Research Methodology 353
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placing himself with the band (and being allowed to do so by them), creates an asso-
ciation that no amount of verbal claiming to have been there can do. He is demon-
strably, and through the fixed image permanently, associated with the band, and with
the identities that his association invokes.

Using the visual image to explain aspects of identity

Because an image introduces a topic without the need for words, the photographs
offered the interviewees the chance to introduce aspects of their lives that they felt might
appear obscure or abstruse to their audience. The photographs triggered accounts that
expanded on aspects not only of style and consumer preference, but also of more funda-
mental and more intensely accountable aspects of the self such as religion and ethnicity.
These two aspects of the photo-elicitation interview, the opportunity to explain
more obscure aspects of experience and to use verbal accounts to contextualise the
image, enabled participants to address delicate and non-stereotypical aspects of iden-
tity by showing aspects of their experience that might have not arisen otherwise. Boys,
for example, sometimes introduced stereotypically feminine issues such as soft toys,
pets or intimacy with family members. Similarly, slightly risky, but quintessentially
teenage activities like underage drinking and illicit drug use arose rarely in the verbal
interviews, but featured more frequently in the photographs and subsequently
discussed in the photo-elicited interviews.
The photo interviews allowed participants to show aspects of themselves which sat
uneasily with stereotypical notions of adolescence as a frivolous or fun time and to
expand on more profound aspects of their experience. While religion arose very
 354 R. Croghan et al.
infrequently in the non-photographic interviews, a number of participants introduced
shots of their places of worship and used the photographic interview as an opportu-
nity to expand on their religious beliefs or to reveal the full extent of their religious
participation.
In the following two extracts, it is not only religious but cultural differences that are
at issue. Uri, a 17-year-old Jewish Israeli-born boy, introduced a picture of the syna-
gogue he attended, in the middle of a set of photographs which show him engaged in
more traditionally ‘laddish’ teenage activities, like going to the off-licence, playing foot-
ball with his mates and smoking a joint.
Uri: I am not sure why I took this, probably to represent a culture.
Int.: Different cultures is what were after (laughing).
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Uri: People remember the whole Jewish thing. Yes this is like the main Synagogue this
is like where the Torah is kept and all that.
Int.: OK.
Uri: And these are the Ten Commandments in Hebrew, and that’s the everlasting light
which is like on 24/7 type of thing.
(Year 12 Israeli male, Oxford)

Uri’s verbal account was attentive to the contradictions inherent in being devoutly
Jewish while also engaging in laddish behaviour. The topic of his religion is introduced
casually ‘the whole Jewish thing’ as if anticipating criticism. The everlasting light is
reintegrated into teenage culture by being referred to as ‘on 24/7’. His account both
maintains a credible teenage identity and introduces an important aspect of himself, his
culture and religion.
Similarly, a Year 8 Vietnamese girl living in Milton Keynes introduced a picture of
her grandfather’s grave into photos of a shopping trip to Leeds. Embedding the photo-
graph of her grandfather’s grave into a set of shopping photos enabled her to introduce
the significant and unexpected topic of death, religion, culture and family ties.
Nina: It’s like a shopping centre and I’m obsessed with shopping so that’s why I took it.
Int.: Right, OK, how come you went to—were you visiting someone particularly in
Leeds or was it some…
Nina: No erm every Easter we go to my Granddad’s grave innit which is the visit and
that’s why I got a photo in here. Like there’s fruit and cigarettes there coz like we
erm we believe that we’d have an afterlife so we sort of like—so that’s why we put
out fruit and then like we just pray and stuff.
(Year 8 Vietnamese girl, Milton Keynes)

Because of its ability to show aspects of identity that might have been difficult to
introduce verbally, the photo interview proved particularly useful for introducing
issues of race and culture. This was a topic that, despite the ethnically mixed nature
of the sample and the inclusion of race and ethnicity in the research design, arose
very little in the non-photo interviews. When it did was often dealt with in formulaic
and dismissive terms. However, it blossomed as an issue in the photographic inter-
views. For many young people from minority ethnic groups this was the first time
that their ethnicity was discussed in the research (see Hunter, Griffin, Croghan, &
Phoenix, 2006).
 International Journal of Social Research Methodology 355
Discussion

Here we have focussed on the construction of identity within a particular context of

elicitation, that of the photo interview and on the particular kinds of accounts elicited
by this research context. We suggest that the visual image can be a useful indication of
individual preferences in terms of self-presentation particularly, as in the study reported
here, where participants show a marked preference for a particular kind of shot.
The accounts discussed here support the contention that, in all forms of accounting
practices, individuals are attentive to the consequences of constructing particular iden-
tities and are inclined to produce accounts that are tailored to the demands of both the
immediate and broader social context (Garfinkel, 1967; Schlegloff, 1997).
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The photo-elicited interview is, we would argue, a particular kind of interaction in

which the photographic image acts as an additional presence. Interviewees, who are
invited to comment on the photographs they have taken, are given a chance verbally
to improve an impression that may have been given and to construct the meanings
they favour, playing up the positive and masking the negative aspects of visual self-
presentation.
The photographic image allows participants to introduce new and possibly conten-
tious topics in ways that are not possible in a purely verbal exchange. The presence of
the visual image provided a platform from which interviewees could expand on aspects
of their experience that might otherwise have been inaccessible. These features of the
photo-elicited account make it a vehicle which may be well suited to the introduction
of sensitive issues or for uncovering aspects of experience that do not fit with cultural
stereotypes. Photo-elicitation might therefore be a useful method of researching
identity positions that are usually silent.
The visual could, as we have seen, be an important means of establishing authentic-
ity. The implacable fixed nature of the photographic image acts as a kind of fixed
identity claim and thus lends itself to particular kinds of identity work. As we saw in
Keith’s account, the authority of the visual image also means that it can be used to
support contentious identity claims, underlining those claims by demonstrating a close
physical association with those with whom participants wish to be identified. The
photographic image, in Scott and Lyman’s (1968) terms, reduces deniability and fore-
stalls possible counter arguments. In contrast, where the associations established by the
visual image were negative, as when they portrayed unpopular brands or styles, the
verbal account could offer a useful means of explaining and mitigating the visual image.
We have argued here that combining verbal and visual forms of self-presentation
allows individuals more scope for presenting complex, ambiguous and contradictory
versions of the self. Both forms of self-presentation can be used to clarify and to
obscure aspects of the self. The photo-elicited account appears to increase the potential
for playing with constructions of identity while reducing the certainty of the grounds
upon which the individual can be held accountable. Unlike visual re-editing, where
one fixed image is substituted for another, verbal re-editing gives participants the
chance to focus on process, on how things have come about. It therefore offers inter-
viewees an opportunity to explain why choices have been made and thus allows them
 356 R. Croghan et al.
to elucidate their motives and values in the context of the constraints and choices
available to them.

Note
[1] This project was funded by an ESRC award (ref. R000239287), and entitled Consuming Identities:
1

Young People, Cultural Forms and Negotiations in Households. The study ran from 2001 to 2005,
based at the University of Bath, the University of Birmingham and the Open University. In all,
1350 young people completed questionnaires, 335 took part in 60 group discussions in 18
secondary schools in Birmingham, Oxford and Milton Keynes, and 20 parents and 16 of their
teenage children participated in the family interviews. We also distributed disposable cameras
to young people to take photographs of their favourite possessions, and these formed to focus
for interviews with 28 young people.
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