Mentioning the unmentionable – photo interviewing as a way through a methodological crisis in sensitive research matters

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss the benefits of photo-interviewing in qualitative studies on sensitive research topics by reflecting about a methodological crisis in my study on male infertility. I will also reflect about my own researcher subjectivity and vulnerability and how it shaped the research process. I will show how photo interviewing became a way to navigate both my ethical considerations
toward the interviewees and a way to overcome my own discomfort and thus created a gentler room to be in for both informant and researcher. An interview structured around images offers a dignified way in and out of sensitive topics and can be flexibly employed as an approach to potentially painful topics, whether informants are in ‘the eye of the storm’ or reflecting on a problem in the past.