Visual Elicitation Hermeneutic Phenomenology

Visual elicitation hermeneutic phenomenology is a qualitative design that combines the image-based interview technique of visual elicitation with the interpretive, context-sensitive tradition of hermeneutic phenomenology. Participants produce or select photographs, drawings, or other images related to a lived experience; those images then anchor an in-depth interview in which meaning is co-constructed between researcher and participant. The approach draws on van Manen's hermeneutic phenomenology and Harper's photo-elicitation method to access layers of experiential meaning that words alone often cannot reach.