I started this project thinking that I would photograph feet in
interesting poses, with the added consideration that this would not involve
publishing any identifiable features. However, it soon became obvious that
catching moving, or even static, feet was a very tricky proposition, and was
not going to be a very easy or productive task.
I moved onto looking at the tracks feet make, and in the process, took
the photograph which changed the direction of the project. Seeing my husband
walk away into the distance on a beach gave me the inspiration that footprints
are harbingers of a journey of some kind.
We live in Oban; the coast is a vital part of our lives – and on the
coast, journeys are made by boat. There are boats of every kind around, so
photographing boats seemed a much more productive idea. Having take a number of
photographs of moving, static and moribund vessels, I realised that moving
boats carry a much more powerful metaphor – they are on a journey and their
passengers are also on their own individual journeys. Hence the title of my blog ‘Boats as a
Metaphor for Journeys’.
I considered using semiotic
analysis as the basis for exploring the ideas and messages encapsulated in
photographs of moving boats following the schema described by Roland Barthes
(1964); but as I started to attempt to analyse
photographs using Barthes’ ideas of studium and punctum; syntagems and signifiers; connotations and denotations, I felt very
constrained by the formality of the methodology. I felt that I was playing word games rather
than getting to grips with the meaning and ideas behind the images. The philosophy
behind Grounded Theory, first propounded by Glaser and Strauss in 1967, looked
more promising as a way of really understanding the messages revealed through
the images. It is possible that with patience, the semiotic concepts of ‘connotation’
and ‘denotation’ would have lead similar outcomes, but Grounded Theory appeared
to offer a more open ‘brainstorming’ method of analysis which looked more engaging
in this instance. Glaser and Strauss
(1967: 49) state that “The basic criterion for governing the comparison groups
for discovering (Grounded) theory is their ‘theoretical relevance’ for
furthering the development of emerging categories. The researcher chooses any groups that will
help generate, to the fullest extent, as many properties of the categories as
possible, and that will help relate categories to each other and to their
properties”. In the event, I felt that
Grounded Theory was very successful in elucidating ideas and providing a useful
analysis of my images of moving boats.
As Prosser points out (1998:
92ff) a major problem with any kind of qualitative photographic analysis is
reflexivity – the fact that the presence of the researcher inevitably affects
the subject of the research – for example, a child smiling or posing for the
camera. Prosser (1998: 87) further states,
“the act of image-making unacceptably alters the object in the frame and
therefore objective content and subjective meaning of the image: images are, by
their nature, ambiguous, and do not in themselves convey meanings which are
supplied serendipitaly by those who perceive them” In the case of my photographs of moving
boats, I could not have any personal effect on any of the people involved in
journeying on the boats photographed; I did, however, choose how and when I
took the pictures – which could be construed as reflexology. My photographs,
particularly the later ones, were carefully chosen to back up my thesis of
‘boats as a metaphor for journeys’, and in this respect they also conform to
Banks’ observation that “the very presence of the camera confers importance and
significance to the scene it reveals” (Banks 1998:15). Furthermore, Harper
(1998:25) points out that despite being “true” in the sense that the camera
took a real picture of a real image, yet all images are “socially and
technically constructed” and need to be interpreted with this understanding in
mind. As an example of this, the two photographs of, and from, the Easdale
Island ferry, were deliberately composed
to illustrate a boat journeying between two remote communities separated by the
sea. These photographs could very well be interpreted completely differently –
as pretty holiday snaps, or ‘Hector, the boatman, returning home’ or ‘white
cottages on an island’. However, in the context of this blog, I am inviting the
reader to accept my interpretation, at least for the duration of the project. In Prosser’s words
(1998: 102), I have set up this photo-diary, the latter part in 
particular, as
a set of “visual quotes” to back up my working hypothesis that boats are indeed
a ‘metaphor for journeys’. Prosser & Schwartz (1998: 125) reflect on this mode
of research process thus: “Analysing photographic data in qualitative research,
as with textual data, is a series of inductive and formative acts carried out
throughout the research process. As with
other qualitative research strategies, visual researchers begin the task of
analysis in the course of field research so that new inferences can be
exploited before the fieldwork ends”
In this context, it is
interesting, to note in passing, that almost all of the literature on visual
sociology refers to anthropological or ethnographic research. There is relatively very little on
quantitative image research applied to inanimate objects, although Prosser and
Schwarz do discuss this to some degree in their work on “Sociology and the
Research Process” (1998: 101-114). In this respect, boats are particularly interesting
as they cross the boundary between ‘animate’ and ‘inanimate’ – being inanimate
per se, but always existing within an animate and social context.
The end-point of this project
was reached when the Grounded Theory approach had resulted in a cascade of
linked ideas contextually associated with the concept of ‘boats as a metaphor
for journeys’. This point represented a break in the research process and the
culmination of usefulness of the Grounded Theory approach. Further research could be very productive,
but would need to tackled using a different methodology – discourse analysis
suggests itself as being a valuable tool here. As Wetherell & Potter (1987:
32, 173) state “The principal tenet of discourse analysis is that function
involves the construction of versions, and is demonstrated by language
variation.” And “In discourse analysis, the extracts are not characterisations
or illustrations of the data, they are examples of the data itself. Or in
ethnomethological terms, they are the topic itself, not a resource from which
the topic itself is rebuilt.” In this instance, the concept of ‘boats as a
metaphor for journeys’ could productively be further explored through various
discourses, such as a ‘historic discourse’, an
‘economic discourse’ or a ‘remoteness discourse’.
In conclusion, a Grounded
Theory approach provided a useful vehicle for analysing the visual data in the photographs
and was able to reveal significant patterns within the images in the blog,
convincingly justifying the hypothesis of ‘boats as a metaphor for journeys’.
Banks, M. (1998) ‘Visual
Anthropology: Image, Object and Interpretation’. In Image-Based
Research: A Sourcebook for Qualitative Researchers. ed. by Prosser, J. London:
Falmer Press, 6-19
Barthes, R. (1964) Elements of Semiology. New York: Hill
and Wang
Glaser, B.G. and Strauss, A.L. (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research.
London: Aldline Transaction
Harper, D. (1998) ‘An
Argument for Visual Sociology’. In Image-Based
Research: A Sourcebook for Qualitative Researchers. ed. by Prosser, J.
London: Falmer Press, 20-35
Potter, J. & Wetherell,
M. (1987) Discourse and Social Psychology:
Beyond Attitudes and Behaviour. London: Paul Chapman Publishing Ltd
Prosser, J. (1998). ‘The Status of Image-based Research’.
In Image-Based Research: A Sourcebook for
Qualitative Researchers. London: Falmer Press, 86-99
Prosser, J. & Schwartz, D.
(1998) ‘Photographs within the Sociological Research Process’. In Image-Based Research: A Sourcebook for Qualitative
Researchers. London: Falmer Press, 115-130
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