Analyzing participant produced photographs from an ethnographic study of fatherhood and smoking

As part of an ongoing ethnographic study, we examined the photographs and narratives that new fathers produced to ascertain how they created social, psychological, and relational space for continued smoking. A four-part process for analyzing the photographs consisting of preview, review, cross-photo comparison, and theorizing revealed how visual data analyses can be used to develop insights into men's health behaviors and beliefs. There is ongoing epistemological debate and methodological uncertainty about how photographic data should be treated in health sciences research. By conducting formal layered analyses, researchers can expand and extend both what is said about, and interpreted through, photographs