Mixing sociology with photography on the side?

[herbertmarcuse]

Howdy friends:
After the elementary school shootings in Connecticut I really got interested with some of the fine photographic work by Kyle Cassidy. Especially his powerful set of photos in the book Armed America got me thinking more about guns and political culture. Likewise, there is so much fruitful stuff that amateur photographers do that  often intersects within in the fields of poverty and social politics  For someone who is constantly thinking outside of the academic box, I wonder if plain photography (or sociologists using more photography in their work)might make sociology actually more radical and useful to the lay-public. What do you yall think? Could sociology mix with a little photography on the side?.Would it be embraced by sociology institutions or face rejection and even visual censorship?

Link to some works by Kyle Cassidy:

 

Armed America (Sorry in Spanish, I think)

 

http://blogs.20minutos.es/trasdos/2012/12/20/armas-eeuu/

 

PS:

He is also working on another book called War Paint which is on the symbolism of tattoos worn by members of the Armed Forces.

 

 

Let me know what you think,

 

HM

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Edited May 2, 2013 by herbertmarcuse

[OrangeSoc]

I think photography can be a powerful addition to sociology. Are you familiar with the subfield of visual sociology?

 

You might want to check out the website for the International Visual Sociology Association (http://visualsociology.org/) or just google "visual sociology" for more resources.

[moderatedbliss]

Susan Sontag isn't considered Sociology, but her work on photography is pretty interesting regardless. I really enjoyed Regarding the Pain of Others.

I'm doing my Sociology honors thesis on the role of shock value photography within the animal rights movement, so I guess I'm combining the two in a way..

[La_Di_Da]

Have you seen the Sociological Images web site? Might find some good info there. http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/

 

Different but tangential to the above: http://archaeography.com/photoblog/

Edited May 4, 2013 by La_Di_Da

[herbertmarcuse]

Yes the societypages/socimages blog is known to me. I'm also a big fan of Contexts magazine!

 

HM

[Mwanafunzi]

You also might be interested in a collaboration on The Society Pages between a professor of sociology and a photographer. It's called Changing Lenses http://thesocietypages.org/changinglenses/

[herbertmarcuse]

Thank you!

[RefurbedScientist]

Tamara Kay is both sociologist and photographer. She also has a great paper in Sociological Forum about sociology and photography. 

 

http://www.tamarakay.com/

 

It's the kind of thing I bet would be tolerated by advisor and colleagues but not encouraged. That being said, I would totally encourage thinking about the practice of photographic sociology. Plenty of anthropologists do it, why not us? 

[herbertmarcuse]

Honestly,I've never heard of her name until now.There are so many sociologists out there trying to make a living and so little time to keep up with all of their works. Still,thanks for mentioning her work!