Urban vernacular landscapes: toward a visual pedagogy of the ordinary

Although many social scientists employ visual media in their research and teaching, the connection between the 'visual' and the 'social science' is often tenuous. Photographs often are reserved for illustrating textual concepts, or making standard findings more interesting to readers than the normal textual exposition in tables, pie charts, graphs, or other methods of data visualization. In my research about urban lives and cultures, I have extensively photographed what John Brinckerhoff Jackson called 'vernacular landscapes.' Although photojournalists, as well as documentary and street photographers, have also engaged in similar image capturing practices, as opposed to their more aesthetic and artistic accomplishments, I have tried to firmly connect my images to normal social science theories and methods. This visually enhanced essay will describe, discuss, and give examples from my own photographic studies of urban vernacular landscapes over several decades and across the globe. It is hoped that in this autobiographical process, the difference between artistic and scientific photography as to theories of class, globalization, race, and other social issues will be made clearer.