How the researcher’s experience of visual images can contribute to qualitative research

This article presents a theoretical argument exploring how visual images appeal to sensory knowledge, and how sensory knowledge can contribute to qualitative research where visual images are included as part of the method. The argument is based on a phenomenological approach and a conceptual model of ‘the aesthetic object’. The experience of the aesthetic object comprises three different attitudes, each of which approaches specific aspects of the aesthetic object. By reflectively differentiating between these various attitudes, the contribution of sensory-experienced knowledge can become explicit in qualitative research.