Julie Patarin-Jossec’s work tests the boundaries of experimental practice and questions disciplinary presuppositions related to the use of photography in sociological research. Julie’s ethnographic portraits result from a long-term ethnography with astronauts, the composition and subject of each photograph is influenced by the immersion of the ethnographer and an additional life story interview with the pictured astronauts.
Tess Baxter’s practice-based doctorate, ‘Falling between Worlds’ demonstrates how text and visuals can be combined to inform research. Her work has diverse forms of expression; a written dissertation that contains visuals, and a practice of video art that contains text (Baxter and Canucci, 2020). Her research area is creative communities in online spaces, specifically the virtual world of Second Life.
Camilo’s doctoral dissertation engages a critical reflection on what he calls an “imaged community” (communauté imagée) in Sarcelles, a French marginalized city. Through a lengthy and immersive visual ethnography, his research shows the power of visual practices in the social and cultural definition of urban phenomena.
Mennatullah’s study on ‘Visual Communication of Cairo’s street billboards’ contributes to actor-network theory, the field of urban planning practice, and the theory and practice of visual methodologies. Her project also develops participatory approaches and visual representation and analysis, and enhances our understanding of Egyptian culture and social life as well as the application of visual imagery to critical inquiry.
These photographs are taken from the film research The court of whispers, directed by Gregory Cohen. The film is a result of PhD Thesis entitled “Film research between fiction and documentary, Back on a film experience around youth and love in a working class district ”, defended in 2019 at the University of Evry Paris-Saclay (France).