The last few years have seen a rapid increase in the use of visual research in a growing number of academic disciplines. In addition to its well-established applications in anthropology, ethnology, psychology, sociology and geography, the approach has been gaining popularity in applied research in a range of fields such as healthcare, culture, urban studies, educational research, social politics and social work. The key advantage of using visual materials, according to existing research is, that it can provide valuable insights into various areas of social life and reveal the often invisible everyday experiences of social stakeholders and important social processes. The application of a visual approach yields rich datasets which can be analysed from multiple perspectives, while the original records can be preserved for future reference. This paper aims to introduce the visual approach to researchers interested in applying visual research in practice. After a brief overview of the emergence and development of the approach, we provide an outline of the main methodological issues in application of visual materials in the era of digital data. The virtually ubiquitous use of different ICT products in visual research has brought about fundamental changes in all stages of the research process: from visual data collection to the way in which visual data are stored, searched, coded, analysed and interpreted.
