Visual studies approach images as material objects through which interpretive communities represent reality and construct scopic regimes that define ways of seeing. Photographs operate as social practices in which modes of seeing reflect the photographer’s vision, transforming images into documentary testimonies that connect subjects and objects to cultural history through symbols and conventions mobilized as social memory. This article analyzes the social use of the photograph by Pedro Antonio Riascos, ‘Casa de la Hacienda Cañasgordas, residencia del último alférez real de Cali’, to examine how visual narratives contribute to shaping the collective memory of the hacienda, a site historically associated with the early political debates and military organization that preceded Cali’s declaration of independence in 1810, and its subsequent restoration as a museum. Drawing on concepts of visual representation and ways of seeing developed by John Berger, Gisèle Freund, and Edward Goyeneche, the study examines how the photograph’s framing supports a discourse that positions the hacienda as a historically significant place. The analysis highlights how power structures, practices of cultural documentation, and the social construction of visual meaning influence the perception of Hacienda de Cañasgordas. This perception is further shaped by literary and legal references, particularly the novel El Alférez Real and Resolution 0423 of 2014, which affirm the site’s historical, aesthetic, and symbolic value.

Many envision the ultimate utopia as heaven and dystopia as hell, to be experienced at some distant point in the future. However, we recognise that reflections of both already coexist in the world we live in. This awareness makes it apparent that re-imagining the past from the lens of the present profoundly shapes our collective meaning-making efforts. In this visual essay, we share our reflections on the fetishisation of Eastern Europe’s controversial past, focusing on the visual cues in the cultural creations of an ironic girl-blogger account on Instagram. We use the preliminary findings from the social media content analysis to illustrate the themes in which parodical re-imagination co-operates with the remedies of historical experience for contemporary identity re-making relying on visualisation. We capture the visual reframing of socio-material remnants of the socialism/communism periods in prior decades, and leveraging this enables an aestheticisation process that fosters authentic self-identification among new-generations in the societies that are vaguely referred to as the former Eastern Bloc nations. The essay offers a discussion that draws from visual studies and consumer culture research, and contributes to interdisciplinary endeavours bridging these fields.

This case study investigates how Chinese lesbians negotiate identity within the family context, foregrounding visual practices as crucial sites of negotiation often overlooked in textual or verbal studies. Utilizing participant-driven Photo Elicitation Interviews (PEI) with eight women across different provinces, and working through the Visual Narrative of Identity (VNI) framework that reinterprets Butler’s performativity and Lacan’s mirror stage through Chinese kinship and cultural obligations, the study analyzes photographs alongside in-depth interviews. The findings reveal the dual role of families as both transmitters of heteronormative norms and sources of emotional support, producing tensions between conformity and selfhood. Economic independence emerges as critical for identity autonomy, while visual narratives expose how participants recite, resist, and reconfigure family scripts. By situating these insights in dialogue with Chinese and transnational queer scholarship, the article contributes to feminist and visual studies by demonstrating how image-based methods illuminate identity negotiations that remain obscured in discursive accounts.

Tattoos are increasingly visible worldwide, yet their emergence in Iran remains underexamined due to legal restrictions and persistent social taboos. This study investigates how media exposure and celebrity culture shape tattoo preferences, design choices, and body-image perceptions among young Iranian women. Using grounded theory, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 tattooed women aged 21–53 and analyzed the data through iterative coding and constant comparison supported by MAXQDA. The findings show that women’s tattoo practices are shaped by three interconnected domains: basic conditions – including early exposure to tattoo imagery and the desire to disguise bodily imperfections; causal conditions – such as decisions about placement, symbolism, and emotional meaning; and intervening conditions – particularly lifestyle habits, social media engagement, and the influence of celebrities. Instagram emerged as the primary space where tattoo aesthetics are circulated, normalized, and reinterpreted, while celebrity figures provided cultural legitimacy in a restrictive sociopolitical environment. Across accounts, tattoos served as tools for self-expression, aesthetic enhancement, and emotional recovery, and for many, as quiet defiance of gendered expectations. Overall, the study reveals that media – especially social media – plays a decisive role in enabling women to renegotiate gender norms and body politics, positioning tattooing as a meaningful form of embodied agency within a constrained cultural setting.

Everyday life on Al-Azhar University’s Nasr City campus is defined as much by its walls, fences, and gates as by its buildings and courtyards. Over time, these enclosures have evolved in form and function, reflecting shifts in the political climate, gender norms, and institutional priorities. This photo essay draws on photographs and direct observation to examine how boundaries shape movement, interaction, and experience across the campus. The selected images capture both the material presence of walls and fences and the social rhythms they produce, revealing how everyday life is choreographed within enclosed spaces. Situated within debates on spatial control, gendered segregation, and the politics of enclosure in higher education, the essay shows how architecture materialises Islamic spatial codes and manages visibility to sustain institutional and cultural values.

This visual essay shares ideas from a collaborative project that brings together visual art and social science research in a novel way. Though it has much in common with conventional approaches to ethnography, counter-visual ethnography is a unique approach to qualitative research in the social sciences insofar as it focuses on what is missing, removed, or absent from the world around us. Counter-visual analysis requires a process of investigating and reflecting on the research site (including visual representations of it) to excavate and re-interpret buried meanings or other relevant interpretations. We offer a guide to producing creative, artistic works out of counter-visual ethnography. The essay is structured chronologically, beginning with a short note on the social science starting point of this work. We open with reflections on our research in Uranium City, Saskatchewan, where this project began. We then outline the method going from counter-visual ethnography to palimpsest and tracing. This involves a collaborative, community-engaging approach to art and knowledge mobilisation that bridges traditional academic disciplines. We conclude with comments on additional ways to extend use of this technique and additional empirical sites where this interdisciplinary visual method could be applied.