Exemplar 1

Let’s consider this picture below from our dataset of a little boy looking upwards in awe at something . What has he seen? Whose arm is on the right of the image? How does he feel? Who has taken this image and why? It is also a very aesthetic image, suggesting something about the sense of wonder and – perhaps - innocence of childhood. Are we supposed to read it this way? None of these questions can be answered by this image alone.

Now, let’s see the image in the context of other photographs taken before and after .

If we follow the entire sequence of images it is now clearer what is going on. The arm belongs to a woman, probably the boy’s mother. They are both engaged in trying to do something on a tall, tube-like exhibit at what is recognisably a science centre. The complete sequence gives a chronological context to the image, allowing us to make sense of it as a series of actions. There is a narrative: a beginning, middle and end. The sense of wonder on the boy’s face is now understood as something rather different than before: he has been watching and doing something with his mother that at a certain moment has resulted in him feeling excited and/or satisfied.

But still we are unsure of what exactly is going on. What is the nature of the interaction between the boy and his mother? What is the exhibit designed to do? What have they managed to do?

If we now look at the fieldnote made by the researcher at the time of taking the photographs, things become a little clearer .

Researcher: "I take photos of other people using the [hydrogen rocket]. I note that the smaller the visitor the more effort they have to put in. One woman starts to use the exhibit with one hand, but realises that she is not generating enough energy. She puts her coat down then grasps handle with both hands. Her son joins her. She points something out to him. I move closer to hear what she is saying. She is telling him to watch the number. After she has fired the rocket the son asks if he can have a go."

We now know what the exhibit is, that the mother is explaining something to the child, and we also gain a sense of why the pictures were taken. The fieldnotes ‘anchor’ the image and make its empirical significance clearer, i.e. as the record of a piece of data.

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