The Moral Maze of Image Ethics

[from the Introduction: ]

Visually orientated educational research, relative to orthodox educational research, is a 'newcomer' to the qualitative research field. As such it lacks a history of accepted ethical practice or a range of theoretical positions on which to base ethical judgements. This chapter does not focus on a general set of ethical principles that are the benchmark for 'wordsmiths' but instead considers common ethical predicaments that result from applying an image-based approach to qualitative research. Those involved who make and use images in a research context are ethically obligated to their subjects. There are moral and political reasons for this. Future visual researchers require access to images and image-making possibilities if image-based research is to make a significant contribution to qualitative research. To gain and maintain that access, to stay in potentially stimulating visual contexts, there is a need to secure the confidence of respondents and fellow researchers. Establishing respondents' confidence means assuring them that they will not be 'damaged', misrepresented, or prejudiced in any way; in terms of researchers confidence means a agreeing ethical procedures that protects respondents yet ensures trustworthiness of findings. Image-based research, being a relative newcomer to interpretative studies, needs theoretical and methodological tenets on which to base its credentials. However, confidence in image-based investigations will only be generated when ethical principles are agreed between researchers and researched, and within the research community, and adhered to by visual researchers across a range of visual contexts. Identifying what constitutes an appropriate ethical practice, as the title of the chapter suggests, is not easy. In order to explore the twists and turns of the ethical maze this chapter is divided into two parts. The first part considers still photography and provides examples from my own work to illustrate ethical dilemmas that face practitioners of image-based research. The second part considers moving images and emphasis is placed on documentary-type film and video. This is an artificial division as many issues, for example those of access, political pressures, and aesthetics, discussed within the still photography sub-heading, are equally applicable to moving images and vice-versa. Hence, ethical issues should be considered as operating across this divide and encompassed by the more general term 'image-based research'.