Visual methodologies in qualitative research: Autophotography and photo elicitation applied to mental health research

Introduction: Visual methodologies are a collection of methods used to understand and interpret images. These methods have been used for a long time in anthropology and sociology; however, they are a relatively new way to research for the majority of disciplines, especially health research. Two effective visual methodologies that could be used in health research are autophotography and photo elicitation. Autophotography: Autophotography is asking participants to take photographs of their environment and then using the photographs as actual data. Autophotography captures the world through the participant’s eyes with subsequent knowledge production. Photo Elicitation: Photo elicitation is using photographs or other visual mediums in an interview to generate verbal discussion to create data and knowledge. Different layers of meaning can be discovered as this method evokes deep emotions, memories, and ideas. Photo elicitation interviews contribute to trustworthiness and rigor of the findings through member checking. Mental Health Research: This article aims to describe the use of autophotography and photo elicitation to compare people with clinically diagnosed depression and people without depression and their ideas about sources of meaning in life and beliefs about the meaning of life. The analytical approach incorporates eight steps. Firstly, data analysis began during the interviews, then came organizing the data, coding the data, structured analysis, detailed analysis, interpretative analysis, creating themes, and the write-up. The steps taken to ensure trustworthiness were Shenton’s credibility, transferability, confirmability, and dependability. This method is a new, innovative, and viable method for mental health researchers.