Losing face? Photo-anonymisation and visual research integrity

This article seeks to trouble the conflation of photo-anonymisation with ethical research practice, as is often promoted by institutional ethics review. Contributing to discussions of ‘visual ethics’ and the application of photographic methods in visual research, it poses the question: what is the effect of the anonymisation of photographs on the integrity of visual research and generation of new knowledge? Discussion unfolds via the exploration of school-based research around young people and sexualities. Examples of photo-anonymisation are examined from a project concerning the sexual cultures of schooling, employing a combination of photo-diary and photo-elicitation methods. The way in which anonymisation techniques meant to protect participants from harm, such as photo-cropping, facial blurring and pixelation, may be counterproductive to this aim, is revealed. Applying such techniques can undermine the agency of participants to convey their ideas and experiences as they intended. It is also argued that anonymisation processes can make a mockery of the integrity of visual methods by casting their meaning and content into obscurity. Such practices can consequently impoverish the generation of new meanings and the advancement of a disciplinary area – which, in the current study, is research on sexualities and schooling. This discussion seeks to encourage visual researchers to reflect upon anonymisation, inciting them to consider the implications of this practice for the ethical treatment of participants and the generation of new meanings in their chosen area.