Photographs found in archives, flea markets, and family collections offer rich but methodologically challenging material for educational research. In this article, Eric Margolis and Jeremy Rowe develop a framework for using “found object” photographs as primary sources for studying schools and schooling.
The authors address the practical and theoretical challenges of working with images whose provenance, context, and intended meaning may be unknown or uncertain. They propose methods for reading these photographs against the grain — extracting information about spatial arrangements, social hierarchies, and institutional practices that the original photographers may not have intended to document.
The article contributes to visual research methodology by demonstrating that even photographs without clear documentation can yield significant insights when approached with appropriate analytical tools.
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Eric Margolis (2016). On Using Found Object Photographs in School Research. Visual Research Methods in Education.
