The 2013 conference was inspired by the idea of the ‘public image’, taking the lead from recent debates around the role and scope of public sociology. Public sociology endeavours to bring sociology into dialogue with audiences beyond the academy, an open dialogue in which both sides deepen their understanding of public issues: in what ways then can visual sociology meet this challenge to bring a sociological understanding of social life to a vibrant, active and diverse public?

Many streams in the conference addressed this question from diverse perspectives, including issues of activism and engagement, public and private images, resilience and urban change, new visual methodologies and many more.

Indeed the response to our call for proposals on these topics was overwhelming. The call for panels and papers has had a success that far exceeded our expectations: thank you so much to all those who submitted proposals and helped make this happen. The result of this collaborative work was a large number of very diverse and exciting sessions, with delegates coming from and doing research on an impressively diverse range of places and approaches, making the conference truly global and interdisciplinary.