How to analyse photographs: advancing theory and method in photo-elicitation research in psychology

Despite growing interest in the use of photo-elicitation in qualitative research, the method remains insubstantially theorised, with conflated terminology, epistemologically incoherent approaches, and scarce analytical frameworks. This article introduces a new methodology, addressing these blind spots by situating photo-elicitation within broader epistemological and methodological debates, challenging assumptions that privilege verbal over visual data or participant-generated over researcher-generated photographs. The paper sets out a theoretical and conceptual foundation for analysing photographs with three analytic models: (1) inherent meaning; (2) contextualised meaning; (3) polyphonic meaning – each grounded in differing assumptions about the source and status of meaning of photographs. Building on this typology, Polyphonic Photo Analysis (PPA) is introduced, a novel hermeneutic phenomenologically inspired approach integrating visual and verbal modes of meaning-making. This article provides the theoretical and methodological foundations for PPA, advances visual analysis in photo-elicitation research and answers calls to expand the interpretative repertoire beyond the spoken word.