Journal of Applied Communication Research

ISSN: 0090-9882 (Print) 1479-5752 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjac20

Challenges in Working with Portraiture

Katherine Hampsten

To cite this article: Katherine Hampsten (2015) Challenges in Working with Portraiture, Journal of
Applied Communication Research, 43:4, 468-471, DOI: 10.1080/00909882.2015.1083605

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2015.1083605

Published online: 02 Oct 2015.

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Journal of Applied Communication Research
Vol. 43, No. 4, November 2015, pp. 468–471

Challenges in Working with Portraiture

Katherine Hampsten

Portraiture is a method that analyzes facets of a theme through in-depth narratives.

This brief essay examines the challenges the author encountered when employing this
method. Specifically, these challenges include (1) introducing a method new to the
communication discipline, (2) creating the portraits, and (3) finding a readership.
Despite these challenges, portraiture offers valuable insight for communication research.

Keywords: Portraiture; Methodology; Paradox; Women and Perfection

As defined by its creator, Lawrence-Lightfoot (2005), the qualitative method of por-

traiture is “this dialogue between science and art, this pursuit of truths, insight, and
knowledge projected by the imagination, this ‘people’s scholarship’” (p. 14). This
“people’s scholarship” is compelling to me as a researcher who is devoted to
engaged scholarship that makes a difference. Portraiture is a method that explores
lived, everyday experiences of participants through the creation and presentation of
in-depth narratives. The end result is scholarship that is compelling, empathetic,
and accessible. However, the path to creating and sharing these portraits presents chal-
lenges that require exploration.
My path began with a project in which I explored the paradoxes that women experi-
ence in trying to manage cultural norms of feminine perfection (Hampsten, 2012).
I hoped to capture the lived experiences and sense-making strategies women
employ when they are caught between the dueling identities of being ideal workers
and ideal mothers (see Hays, 1996; Williams, 2000). Portraiture offers an opportunity
to capture the paradoxes and individual complexities of these lived experiences. My
ultimate goal was to paint a cohesive narrative, blended from unique stories, that
would reach readers on a personal level.
In this essay, I reflect on the challenges and opportunities that are involved in the
planning, doing, and writing of portraiture. Specifically, I examine the challenge of
introducing a method that is new to the field of communication. Next, I highlight
the issues I encountered in crafting the portrait. Finally, I discuss opportunities and
challenges in seeking a readership for this method.

Department of English & Communication Studies, St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX, USA. E-mail:
Khampsten@stmarytx.edu

ISSN 0090-9882 (print)/ISSN 1479-5752 (online) © 2015 National Communication Association

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2015.1083605
 Working with Portraiture 469

Challenge One: Introducing a New Method to the Field

While researchers in other disciplines have employed the method of portraiture, com-
munication researchers have seldom used it. One possible reason is that much of social
science research tends to critique. Portraiture, however, seeks to uncover the “good-
ness” within a research participant or site; the method highlights “strengths, compe-
tencies, and insights” (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997, p. 141). While this
approach is not the creation of an “idealized portrayal of human experience” or a
“focus only on good things” (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997), it does focus on
success over failure. This emphasis on the presence, rather than absence, of virtues
runs counter to “the more typical social science preoccupation with documenting
pathology and suggesting remedies” (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997). It highlights
the enactment of a virtue or a particular quality, such as respect (Lawrence-Lightfoot,
1999). As such, portraiture provides the field of communication studies an alternative
approach for research that makes a difference.
Beyond this different scope, research that uses portraiture also looks different from
other qualitative studies. For my project, I worked with five participants. The limited
sample size provided as much (if not more) data than typical qualitative studies,
because the participants and I worked together across several interviews and conver-
sations. However, I needed to explain and defend this approach to the Institutional
Review Board at my institution and to other scholars in both communication and fem-
inist studies.

Challenge Two: Creating the Portraits

Creating the portrait presented other challenges, as well. These challenges emerged in
collecting data and writing up the portraits. For example, participant confidentiality is
typically not employed in the method. Why? Each portrait is so rich in personal detail
that maintaining confidentiality is impractical. However, the researcher must be clear
about this deviation from traditional research to both the participants and the Insti-
tutional Review Board overseeing the work. In this project, the participants tended
to be comfortable with their identities being used because they wanted to share
their experiences and perspectives freely. As one participant, who regularly spoke to
young women about her experience with an eating disorder, stated, “I’m an open
book.” However, my university’s Institutional Review Board met my proposal with
a bit more resistance. They requested further clarification of the project and justifica-
tion for the lack of confidentiality before approving the research plan.
Selecting participants for this project also presented challenges. Participants must be
open to a long-term relationship in which they participate in extensive interviews and
shadowing. This process can be intensive for both the researcher and the participant in
terms of time and emotion. Depending on the individual’s story and situation, the por-
traitist will likely need several meetings to collect enough data. In my experience, the
relationship between the two individuals may evolve into a relationship beyond
researcher/participant. In fact, one participant asked whether I had been trained as
470 K. Hampsten
a counselor because our sessions reached such depth. Certainly, the portraitist’s role is
not to counsel; rather it is to listen deeply, probe effectively, and then write as the
conduit for the story.
This relationship requires both respect and trust from each party. As Davis (2003)
explains, the participant should be able to say to the researcher, “You may look and see
because I know that you will not betray me in your expression of your vision” (p. 209).
As a result of this trust, the researcher is careful to treat the participant with respect
and consideration. In fact, the data that are ultimately presented will be filtered
through this relationship.
In order to fully grasp the subject, portraiture draws from a variety of sources. In
addition to conducting interviews, researchers using portraiture may also wish to
include data from sources that make sense for the particular research project. They
may shadow the subject at work or at home as a way to observe (and later capture
in words) how the participant interacts in his/her surroundings and with other indi-
viduals. The researcher may look to other forms of data beyond the interviews. For
example, with their permission, I studied interviewees’ social media accounts, personal
photographs, listened to their favorite music, and read articles and essays they had
written. I even asked one participant to bring to one of our interviews items that
she felt represented “perfection,” which provided a rich outlet for discussion. I
found that I needed to remind myself why I was specifically working with each indi-
vidual, remembering the unique facet of my exploration of perfection that she brought
into focus. At the same time, I also needed to remember the bigger picture of the study
as a whole. This mindset created a back-and-forth shift in focus as I interpreted the
wide range of data collected.
After collecting the data, the writing process presented its own challenging journey.
Portraiture requires the researcher to channel the spirit of the individual. It requires
the researcher to listen to the participant’s voice, both literally and metaphorically.
As I wrote, it was important to me for each voice to emerge unique from the
others. I hoped to capture the cadence and presence of each participant. I wanted
each portrait to read differently from the others, for my voice to take backstage
from the participant’s. I believe that effective portraits resist a formulaic pattern;
rather, the narrative pattern itself reveals the personality of the individual.

Challenge Three: Finding a Readership

The final—and, in my experience, greatest—challenge with portraiture is to find the
right audience for the portraits. To me, the ideal audience has not only interest in
the theme, but also patience and willingness to journey with the researcher on the
exploration of that theme. My goal is to present a narrative that is so rich, so
nuanced, that readers are able to draw their own conclusions. They are trusted with
the ambiguities and paradoxes that the method is able to reveal. They may even
draw different and/or additional conclusions from the study than does the researcher.
Frankly, this approach to knowledge does not fit neatly into the journal format. For
example, the journal format tends to follow a traditional research pattern. The scope of
 Working with Portraiture 471

portraiture does not always fit into the page restrictions of a journal. The complete
narrative arc of a portrait requires several pages, and the presentation of several
linked portraits obviously requires many more. Therefore, sharing portraits in
formats other than longer books presents a challenge.
Some reviewers I have encountered argue that portraiture does not constitute scho-
larship. An anonymous reviewer advised me not to “waste [his/her] time” with portraits
that the reviewer believed better fit the popular press, rather than an academic outlet. In
a sense, the reviewer was correct that reading portraits requires time. Portraits create a
journey for readers that can be time-intensive. Furthermore, the portraits are best
explored together, as in a gallery, through which comparisons and contrasts may be
made and greater patterns may begin to emerge. This format lends itself best to a
longer book or monograph, rather than an academic journal article. While portraits
may be summarized and researchers may articulate the research findings in a journal
article, the artistry of the portrait itself may be lost in translation.

Conclusion
Portraiture offers a rich opportunity for scholarly exploration. The art and science of
portraiture capture the nuances, emotions, paradoxes, and complexities of a lived
experience in a way that other methods may not. Certainly, portraiture brings many
challenges, but I have found the results to be worth the effort. One of the best
rewards I received was an unsolicited note from the husband of one of my participants.
After reading the finished portrait of his wife, he wrote that the portrait did “a won-
derful job in bringing to life the essence of who she is.” This statement highlights how
portraits can animate the lives of participants, illuminating the lessons of their lives in
a powerful way.

References
Davis, J. H. (2003). Balancing the whole: Portraiture as methodology. In P. M. Camic, J. Rhoses, & L.
Yardley (Eds.), Qualitative research in psychology: Expanding perspectives in methodology and
design (pp. 199–217). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Hampsten, K. J. (2012). Managing the paradoxes of perfection in women’s daily lives (Unpublished
doctoral dissertation).
Hays, S. (1996). The cultural contradictions of motherhood. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Lawrence-Lightfoot, S., & Davis, J. H. (1997). The art and science of portraiture. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Lawrence-Lightfoot, S. (1999). Respect: An exploration. Reading, MA: Perseus Books.
Lawrence-Lightfoot, S. (2005). Reflections on portraiture: A dialogue between art and science.
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Williams, J. (2000). Unbending gender: Why family and work conflict and what to do about it. Oxford:
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