What’s in focus? A critical discussion of photography, children and young people

Photography is an increasingly popular research method, used to explore a number of topics with a wide range of social groups, including children and young people. Drawing upon two UK research projects, focused on firstly childcare and secondly children’s mobility, this paper critically considers photography as a research method with children and young people. Firstly, we consider the production of photographs and the need to look behind the lens since this influences the final photographic product. Secondly, we argue that the interpretation of photographs should be undertaken with children to ensure we explore their intending meaning rather than interpretive meanings given by adult researchers. Thirdly, we discuss some of the different ways in which researchers have attributed ownership to photographs published in research publications. In doing so, we contribute to debates regarding photographic methods for research not only with children and young people, but also with other social groups.