Immersive Photography as Practise-led Inquiry: Poetic Engagements with Landscape and Embodied Knowledge

Abstract

This article presents a practice-led doctoral research project that explores photography as an immersive and embodied form of inquiry. It examines how photographic practice can articulate a deeply engaged, poetic relationship with the land, extending beyond visual representation to encompass sensory, affective, and spiritual dimensions. The study is framed by the central research question: How can photographic practice be structured to express an immersive and embodied relationship with the environment? Situated within the broader discourse of practice-led research, this investigation engages with artistic, phenomenological, and Indigenous perspectives that challenge conventional representations of landscape. It draws on philosophical frameworks, including Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception and Bergson’s concept of duration, as well as Indigenous epistemologies that regard land as an active, living entity. Methodologically, the research employs a heuristic inquiry approach, integrating photographic fieldwork, reflective journaling, and poetic writing. Through an iterative process of making, reflecting, and theorising, the study develops a methodology that foregrounds immersion as a means of attunement to place. The inclusion of poetic inquiry serves to articulate the intangible and affective qualities of these encounters, allowing for an expanded understanding of embodied knowledge within photographic practice. This study contributes to discussions on practice-led methodologies, expanding notions of photography as a relational and experiential act. By positioning photography as a process of deep engagement, the study offers insights into how creative practice can function as a mode of inquiry, generating knowledge that is embedded in lived experience.