Use of Photography in Organizational Research: Legitimacy and Potential

ABSTRACT

Objective:

to discuss the use of the photographic method to produce evidence in organizational research and contribute to the debate so that the method achieves greater legitimacy from the nuances that delimit the organizational field.

Proposal:

present characteristics, approaches of the photographic method, limitations, and possibilities of its application as a means of producing evidence in organizational research with rigor, relevance, accuracy, and impact, discussing practical aspects of photographic analysis and the dilemmas that accompany the researcher in its use. Examples of reflections helpful to researchers when using photographic analysis are also presented.

Conclusions:

given the restricted use of photography in organizational research, the reduced scope of articles published with photographic analysis, and the potential that the method has to produce evidence, the essay encourages actors in the field to expand the use of photography. Moreover, the article discusses how photography can achieve more significant space among researchers, editors, reviewers, and readers. Given the broad theoretical and methodological scope in which photography can be applied and the contemporary technological facilities, overcoming this reduced use is more related to the need for greater legitimacy of photography by peers than the specifics of the method.

Keywords:
qualitative research; visual methodology; organization