Reading Photographs of Young Children: Looking at Practices

This article is a methodological reflection on the use of photographs in research with young children. As a basis for discussion, it uses research photographs that were collected as part of a critical interpretative case study of young children's learning during excursions to an art gallery. Data collected for this study also included transcripts of children's talk, drawings they made and work undertaken later at the children's pre-school. This article discusses the methodological use of photographs as ‘visual data’. A sociocultural framework for analysis is offered for its potential to reveal new ways to interpret photographs of young children participating in research.