Using Photography in Studies of Immigrant Communities

Abstract

Drawing on the author’s research with three migrant populations—Jews from the former Soviet Union, Vietnamese, and Israelis—this article offers several suggestions for integrating photography into fieldwork studies. Visual methods are shown to be useful for learning about the research context, generating rapport with respondents, analyzing findings, and sharing research with students and colleagues. Examples show how photography contributed to the understanding of migrant communities, entrepreneurs’ use of coethnic and outgroup labor, and gender patterns.