Contemporary photography practice: expanded methodology and critical ways of thinking

Contemporary photographic practice has advanced into a broad territory of representational flux and modalities. This is a stimulating moment for lens-based practitioners and practice-led researchers willing to explore expanded modes of academic inquiry connected the medium of photography. In this article I draw key methodological insights from my Practice-led PhD project Place Imaginaries: Photography and Place-making at Te Awa River Ride. I explore relationships between photography and place-making and how photography is embedded within place-making processes. As a photographer and artist I developed a methodology based on photography practice and the iteration of curated bodies of photographic work. Te Awa River Ride is my research locale, a shared pathway that edges the banks of the Waikato River in the central North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. Photography practice or lens-based practice is located at the core of my methodological research approaches; a space, which informs both theoretical and practice-led research developments en route to expanded critical modes of academic inquiry.