Résumé
Cet article résulte d’un atelier de sociologie visuelle mené en automne 2017, à bord d’un bateau « Belle Époque » sur le lac Léman. Il interroge le statut, dans notre corpus qui se voulait scientifique, de photos qui ne semblent avoir d’autre vocation qu’esthétique. Plutôt que de détourner le regard de photos dont le statut peut paraître anecdotique, voire problématique, nous nous proposons de prendre au sérieux la question de la tension, voire de l’opposition, entre la « belle » photo (qualité esthétique) et la « bonne » photo (qualité heuristique). Il nous semble en effet que cette question, bien que peu discutée dans la littérature en méthodes visuelles, habite les coulisses de la production de matériel visuel par des chercheurs. Pour ce faire, nous avons retenu un ensemble de 57 « belles » photos que nous soumettons à un questionnement épistémologique engageant quatre pistes de réflexion et cadres théoriques différents. Notre démarche vise à encourager une expérimentation réflexive des méthodes visuelles.
This article builds on a workshop in visual sociology, held in the fall of 2017, on board of the “Belle Époque” ship on Lake Geneva. We reflect on the status of photographs – intended to be primarily scientific – which seemed to serve no purpose other than being “aesthetically pleasing”. Instead of turning away from these images, which in our eyes have an anecdotic or sometimes even problematic character (scientifically speaking), we put forward the idea that the tension – or even opposition – between the “beautiful” picture (aesthetic quality) and the “good” picture (heuristic quality) should be taken seriously. This question, still rarely discussed in the literature on visual methods, is yet often in the background of researchers’ visual material production. In this way, we focus on a series of 57 “beautiful” photographs, which we submit to an epistemological analysis, using four strands of reflection based on different theoretical frameworks. This exploratory approach aims to encourage reflexive experimentation in the field of visual methods.
This article builds on a workshop in visual sociology, held in the fall of 2017, on board of the “Belle Époque” ship on Lake Geneva. We reflect on the status of photographs – intended to be primarily scientific – which seemed to serve no purpose other than being “aesthetically pleasing”. Instead of turning away from these images, which in our eyes have an anecdotic or sometimes even problematic character (scientifically speaking), we put forward the idea that the tension – or even opposition – between the “beautiful” picture (aesthetic quality) and the “good” picture (heuristic quality) should be taken seriously. This question, still rarely discussed in the literature on visual methods, is yet often in the background of researchers’ visual material production. In this way, we focus on a series of 57 “beautiful” photographs, which we submit to an epistemological analysis, using four strands of reflection based on different theoretical frameworks. This exploratory approach aims to encourage reflexive experimentation in the field of visual methods.