Doing visual archaeology: archive images and participatory film-making

Abstract

Visual sociology often relies for its content on researcher-created or participant-created images. In this article we discuss our use of existing local history archive images in a participatory film-making project with ten people living in residential dementia care in the Northern UK. We draw on the concept of archaeology in two ways: first, as used by Foucault (1972), who contends that archaeology is a metaphor for exploring traces left by the past in order to understand the present. Secondly, in a more obvious sense–many of the most salient cultural references for our participants related to public buildings and local landmarks that had been demolished, repurposed, or dramatically changed in appearance since their youth.