Photographic promtps as an interviewing technique

In my interviews I have been asking people to re-call their first memories of the Ox, memorable nights they've had, and bands they have seen.

While this can sometimes prompt extended responses some respondents have found it hard to distinguish between certain nights or gigs. With the addition of alcohol a lot of these memories have blended into one, not surprisingly!

While this says a lot about certain peoples association with the pub and venue it doesnt always make for a compelling and rich narrative.

I interviewed a friend of mine who is a photographer a while back and he gave me access to thousands of photos of the venue. He gave these up and basically said I could do what I wanted with them. I took them away and realised what a rich data source they were and began thinking about how I would utilise them.

After taking the photos away I realised how much I was trying to apply the literature towards the sources of the photographs and had completely neglected what these photos actually meant to the photographer. I'm now going to do a second interview (tomorrow) in which i will get the photographer to narrate the photographs. I'm also hoping to conduct interviews with the subjects within some of the key photos to see how that prompts different peoples memories of the same nights, gigs or events.

I think the key thing to remember for me is that these photographs were taken outside of the context of research. As such they have specific purpose and meaning to people that can be an important tool in documenting peoples relationship with the space of the venue.