Children picturing suffering in dark tourism: the use of photo-elicitation method

ABSTRACT

Dark tourism subject matter can be powerfully visual. This study adopts the photo-elicitation method to examine children’s perspectives of the exhibitions at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Thematic analysis of children’s photographic narratives reveals that children use their photographs to visualize, describe and interpret what and who caused the suffering. Applying the social identity theory framework, the findings suggest that children identify with their ingroup and differentiate themselves from the outgroup in their photographic narratives. In interpreting the experience of suffering, children de-individualize the suffering bodies, creating a singular Vietnamese experience of suffering and collective identity. The use of photo-elicitation with children is valuable for generating new insights into children’s interpretive and emotional experiences, which have important theoretical and methodological implications for future research in dark tourism.

KEYWORDS:

• Photo-elicitation
• children
• dark tourism
• social identity
• emotion
• War Remnants Museum

Introduction

Dark tourism refers to any form of tourism associated with disaster, tragedy, crime, atrocity, suffering and death (Isaac & Çakmak, 2014; Light, 2017; Stone, 2006; Stone & Sharpley, 2008). Dark tourism attractions are sites of commemoration, memorialization, pilgrimage education, advocacy and entertainment. Children and youth are considered an important audience in dark tourism, as a large number of school students visit various dark sites as part of educational field trips (Cowan & Maitles, 2011; Hodgkinson, 2013; Israfilova & Khoo-Lattimore, 2019; Yoshida, et al., 2016; Yan et al., 2016), yet children are an underrepresented group in dark tourism discourse (Kerr & Price, 2018; Khoo-Lattimore, 2015; Stone, 2023). Hence, it is difficult to understand what children experience when they encounter atrocities, suffering and death at dark sites. Tourism researchers have emphasized the need for more research that examines children’s experiences at dark sites as there is a recognition that children are fundamentally different from adults in their perceptions and interpretations of dark tourism sites (Israfilova & Khoo-Lattimore, 2019; Kerr & Price, 2018; Kerr et al., 2021). Additionally, there is a need to explore innovative methodologies for examining not only about children but with children in exploring their contexts (Canosa et al., 2019; Harper, 2002; Kerr & Price, 2018).

To gain a comprehensive understanding of how children perceive their experiences at dark tourism sites, it is necessary for researchers to explore dark tourism in diverse social and cultural contexts as children’s experiences, perceptions and understanding may be situated within specific social and cultural contexts, as well as relational factors occurring within them. Moreover, further research is needed across a range of contextual factors, including dark tourism destinations and exhibits to provide a better understanding of children’s personal perspectives, interpretation and understanding of specific contexts of the dark events. Such research may offer new insights that can enhance methodological design and practice, ultimately contributing to our understanding of how children perceive their encounters at dark tourism sites. This research aims to use photo-elicitation method to examine how children interpret exhibits at a dark site. This research also provides critical insights into children’s dark tourism experiences, which have important theoretical and methodological implications for guiding future research in dark tourism.

Literature review

Visualization practices in dark tourism

Dark tourism subject matter can be powerfully visual in capturing the social, cultural, political and historical contexts of the dark sites. Dark tourism visualization and imagery have become a medium for reporting ‘dark events’ across the entire spectrum of dark tourism attractions (Lennon & Foley, 2000; Sharpley & Stone, 2009). Many dark sites are graphically represented in images of death, suffering and disaster (Friedrich & Johnston, 2013; Hughes, 2008; Wright & Sharpley, 2018). Subsequently, visual representation at dark sites, including landscapes, building structures, physical objects and photographs, is applied to elucidate different forms and meanings of suffering to achieve specific narratives. Many dark tourism sites use photographs to engage with difficult histories and display extreme forms of suffering (Friedrich & Johnston, 2013; Gillen, 2014; Hughes, 2008).

Visualization in dark tourism presents a wide variety of issues, practices and perspectives relating to history representation, interpretation and meaning-making (Sharpley & Stone, 2009; Wight & Lennon, 2007; Wright & Sharpley, 2018). Dark tourism visualization is a complex research area traversing the divide between objective and subjective practice. Visualization forms, such as photographs, are both embodied visualities and performative objects (Lennon, 2018; Wright & Sharpley, 2018). Photographs perform a multitude of roles in recording events, communicating knowledge, depicting people and places and evoking emotional engagement in the tourism experience (Stepchenkova & Zhan, 2013; Wright & Sharpley, 2018). They have become a form of pictorial record in documenting the conflict, atrocity, suffering and death at dark tourism sites, for example, the Tuol Sleng Museum in Cambodia (Hughes, 2008), the War Remnants Museum in Vietnam (Gillen, 2014) and the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda (Friedrich & Johnston, 2013). Photographs provide visitors with a testament to the historical events and can be used to illustrate the reality of dark tourism sites (Lennon, 2018; Lennon & Foley, 2000). The photographic displays offer the viewers a perspective that is multifarious in arrangement, intention, interpretation and meaning.

The visualization and imagery in dark tourism play an important role in framing the wider interpretation of historical realities (Garlick, 2002; Hariman & Lucaites, 2003). Dark tourism sites provide an opportunity to ‘write or rewrite the history of people’s lives and deaths, or to provide particular (political) interpretations of past events’ (Sharpley & Stone, 2009, p. 8). Site interpretation is critical for facilitating a broader understanding of historical events since in the absence of interpretation the site will lack meaning and significance (Frew, 2012; Sharpley & Stone, 2009). Interpretation is a ‘process of creating multiple constructions of the past whereby history is never an objective recall of the past, but is rather a selective interpretation’ (Wight & Lennon, 2007, p. 527). Likewise, a photograph is not a concrete visual depiction of the subject but instead, a polysemic site that may be presented and visualized in multiple ways and employed subsequently in constructing a variety of (re)presentations and in providing diverse visual narratives and differing understandings. More importantly, a ‘museum’s context and surrounding content can influence photographic meaning by favouring one interpretation over others’ (Stylianou & Stylianou-Lambert, 2017, p. 3). Photographs at a dark site can be used to construct a specific interpretation to achieve a specific goal. Additionally, the specific cultural background of the visitors may significantly influence their collective narrative understanding of the dark site and its exhibitions.

Many dark tourism sites are deeply imbued with emotions, most notably at sites where conflict is unresolved, with individuals negotiating difficult historical events and navigating political discourses on remembrance (Cui et al., 2020; Godis & Nilsson, 2018; Martini & Buda, 2020; Nawijn & Biran, 2019; Nawijn et al., 2016). Some dark sites may evoke strong emotional responses in visitors, which may impact on how they interpret and relate to the site. Dark tourism can be described as ‘an affective socio-spatial encounter’ (Martini & Buda, 2020, p. 679). Researchers have highlighted the significance of highly emotional exhibitions at dark sites (Gillen, 2014; Friedrich & Johnston, 2013; Hughes, 2008; Meesham-Muir, 2004; Witcomb, 2013). Visual displays are associated with ‘highly emotional elements and symbols’ (Collier Jr. & Collier, 1986, p. 108) and can utilize emotional appeals (Hughes, 2008) to enable visitors to identify with their stories, their identities and what they represent. There is a significant amount of interest in the relationships between museum visitors and its exhibits (Smith & Campbell, 2015; Smith et al., 2018; Witcomb, 2013). According to Watson (2016), ‘some institutions are paying more attention to the emotional responses their historical exhibitions elicit and are attempting to evoke emotions in a deliberate manner’ (p. 81).

Identity and belonging

The social identity approach, which incorporates both social identity theory and self-categorization theory (Tajfel, 1981; Turner et al., 1987), provides valuable insights to better understand dark tourism, specifically, those where conflicts are underpinned by collective identification. A social identity refers to ‘that part of an individual's idea of self which derives from his knowledge of his membership of a social group (or groups) together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership’ (Tajfel, 1978, p. 63). That is, social identity requires an awareness of belonging to a certain social group. This may include family, gender, religious, political, ethnicity, or national group membership (Abrams & Hogg, 1988; Tajfel & Turner, 1986), which can drive social identity processes and influence reactions to experiences related to war. Self-categorization theory suggests that the salience of social identity is highly context-specific and shaped by the active process of categorization. The self is redefined in the collective of the relevant category, which is fundamental to how individuals negotiate their positions (Hornsey, 2008; Turner et al., 1987; Turner & Reynolds, 2001). Hence an individual’s behaviours and emotions are influenced by their group membership (Mackie et al., 2000; Mackie & Smith, 2018).

History plays an important role in the construction, reconstruction and maintenance of national identity. The symbolic meanings of dark sites are found in the construction and negotiation of individual and social identities through the act of visiting the dark sites, validating historical events, collective remembrance and shared recollections of the collective past (Cooke, 2000; Podoshen & Hunt, 2011). Visiting specific war-related dark sites may temporarily heighten the salience of a social category evoked by the dark site. In many cases, history of conflicts between groups may contribute to the salience of social identity. Specifically, the history of the ingroup and its relationships with outgroups becomes a crucial element that differentiates the identity of the ingroup and outgroups and shapes their relationships with the dark sites. Due to their belonging to a specific social category, the ingroup may use the dark site to justify its position, identity and relations with the outgroup. Warfare not only influences the development of collective identity (Cooke, 2000), but also shapes how the nation positions itself in relation to others (Cohen, 2011). Several researchers have focused on the relationship between sites of war and national identities (Cheal & Griffin, 2013; Gieling & Ong, 2016; Hyde & Harman, 2011; Packer et al., 2019; Slade, 2003; White & Frew, 2013).

Critical to the understanding dark tourism is production, reproduction and maintenance of representations of the historical past (Schwenkel, 2006). Dark tourism sites serve as representations of place through the selection of artefacts, display of exhibits and imbuing of meanings that validate the museum’s position in relation to the past. Additionally, these sites aim to communicate ideas of ‘who we are and how we have come to be who and where we are’ (Winter, 2012, p. 152), reflecting certain political ideologies and their associated social relationships. They serve a social function linked to specific groups and their political stances underpinning their representation. Dark site narratives have the capacity to influence public perception and understanding of historical events, fostering a connection among individuals through shared beliefs and values. This influential process can act as a bonding agent fostering, strengthening a collective sense of national identity (Roppola et al., 2019). However, active participation from the visitors is necessary to co-create both the identity narrative and collective memory. As such, a group’s memory is connected to places that are imbued with symbolic meanings related to past events and they serve as an essential means of preserving group memory (Schwenkel, 2009).

Visual research for children in dark tourism

Examining the experiences of children and youth in tourism has applied various qualitative and quantitative methods such as examining artefacts, conducting observation, interviews, focus groups, analysing online reviews, administering surveys and employing visual methods (Cui et al., 2020; Israfilova & Khoo-Lattimore, 2019; Kerr et al., 2023). Research involving children in dark tourism presents ethical, methodological and design challenges (Canosa et al., 2019; Kerr & Price, 2018; Khoo-Lattimore, 2015). These challenges involve not only the use of appropriate data collection methods to gain insights into children’s perceptions, interpretations and experiences but also the active engagement of children in the research process. Despite the methodological challenges associated with difficult, complex and emotionally charged contents at many dark tourism sites, there is general acceptance on the importance of children visiting these sites and learning about the historical events (Ballantyne et al., 2023; Kerr & Price, 2018). Thus, it is crucial to gain a deeper understanding of children’s experiences and ‘ … to use that understanding to inform the design, implementation, and evaluation of hot interpretive exhibitions’ (Ballantyne et al., 2023, p. 111). Hence, there is a need to explore creative research methods to facilitate children’s capacity to participate in research, to provide opportunities for them to articulate their interpretations, express their emotions and generate deep inquiry ‘with’ them and not simply ‘about’ them (Canosa et al., 2019; Harper, 2002).

Photo-elicitation is a qualitative interview strategy in which researchers use photographs as stimuli to elicit responses, emotions and meanings that might not be accessible using only verbal methods (Collier Jr. & Collier, 1986; Harper, 2002). Photographs have the capacity to evoke deeper elements of an experience than ‘words alone’ (Harper, 2002, p. 13). Moreover, this approach allows children to be involved in ‘reporting on, or in some way revealing or displaying, their experience’ (Greene & Hill, 2005, p. 12). The use of photographs brings the child into ‘the research process as an interpreter or even an active collaborator’ (Stanczak, 2004, p. 1473). This participatory method gives children greater control over the research process by ‘creating an atmosphere in which there were no right or wrong answers and even some opportunities for them to interpret and explain their own data’ (Thomas & O'kane, 1998, p. 343). Photography can be used as an integral part of data collection to generate new insights to complement current knowledge of children’s experiences of dark sites. The use of photo-elicitation as a strategy to explore children’s experiences in dark tourism is rare, despite its use across a wide variety of disciplines to explore specific aspects of children’s health (Drew et al., 2010;), school environment (Torre & Murphy, 2015), work (Mizen, 2005), community (Malone, 2013) and physical surroundings (Tunstall et al., 2004).

Photo-elicitation may be useful in providing children with opportunities to generate their narratives about, articulate their interpretation of, express their emotions in response to and communicate their perspectives on the museum exhibits. The main objective of this study is to report on the photo-elicitation method and explore what insights this method can provide for research designed to examine children’s experiences in dark tourism, specifically, to examine whether photo-elicitation is an effective method for exploring children’s experiences at the War Remnants Museum. The research questions are:

1. How do the children view the exhibitions at the War Remnants Museum?

2. Can photo-elicitation method benefit researchers in understanding how children make meaning of exhibitions?

This research extends the study of children’s tourism experiences to include visuals, aiming to engage with and theorize how children experience dark sites. This study makes a distinctive and meaningful contribution to the visualization and interpretive experiences in dark tourism.

Methods

The context of the study: the war remnants museum

The field trip to the War Remnants Museum in 2019 provided the context for this research. This study was part of a larger research project and some details of the methods have been described elsewhere (Dresler, 2022). The War Remnants Museum presents the historical events of the US war in Vietnam from the perspective of the Vietnamese people (http://warremnantsmuseum.com). This museum is one of the most popular dark tourism destinations in Vietnam, attracting approximately half a million international and domestic visitors every year. The museum is divided into two main areas: the outside area displays a collection of US military weaponry used during the war; the inside area consists of three floors comprising themed rooms. Each themed room contains mainly enlarged photographs occupying much of the wall space, supplemented with a short text in both English and Vietnamese. Despite the brief text given, the visitors are to experience the exhibits visually and immerse themselves in an atmosphere of war, suffering and death. The War Remnants Museum was selected for this study as photography, photographs and photographic practices form a crucial museological milieu of this dark site. The War Remnants Museum tells stories of extreme violence and suffering (Gillen, 2014) and employs extensive use of photographs to carry its narratives of the War. Photographs are integral to broader considerations of museum practices of collecting and displaying.

The children’s experiences of the dark site have been derived from texts and photographs produced by the children. This study has adopted an inductive qualitative design using the photo-elicitation method. The main characteristic of the photo-elicitation strategy is that photographs are used in the in-depth interview and participant observation processes (Chronis, 2005; Harper, 2002). In this study, the worksheet approach was used to allow for both child-centred activities and self-directed exploration of the museum (DeWitt & Storksdieck, 2008). This combination of visual and written methods allowed the children time to select the photographs they wanted and reflect on their images they wanted to write about, rather than them trying to verbalize an immediate response to questions in an interview situation. The photographs provided the context behind children’s responses and enabled them to explain to the researcher what meanings they ascribed to their photographs.

In the field trip worksheet, the children were asked, ‘Choose one photo which you have taken during the trip and describe your thoughts on this photograph’ and to ‘Explain the reasons for you choosing this photograph’. In this way, each photograph had its own narrative panel provided by each child, an approach that assists in the discovery of meanings that may not always be obvious in the photograph itself. Participant-generated visual data is particularly suitable for this study, as taking photographs is part of the field trip experience. Photographs can be useful in the recording and recalling of information from the field trip, to complete their worksheet activity. Children had a high level of control over which exhibits to photograph and over their selection of images to discuss in the worksheet activity. Asking children to select images they have already photographed reduced the research-related intrusion (Garrod, 2008). There were no interactions between the members of the research team and the children before, during, or after the field trip to reduce the imbalance of power between the researchers and the children (Price, 2023).

The data were obtained from nine classes in a secondary school located in the southern region of Vietnam. The three-phased consent process was applied to gain access to the students’ worksheets. First, the school principal was approached to gain consent to collect data on the field trip. Second, parental consent was obtained. The parents were informed that if they did not wish their child to participate in the study, their child’s worksheet would not be given to the research team for analysis. Third, the students were informed that they would not have to answer any questions and that they could withdraw at any stage of the research process. Taken together, there were 395 Vietnamese students aged 14 years old participated in the field trip. There were 30 parents and/or children who declined the invitation to participate in the study and 41 children decided to opt out of this phase of the study. To maintain anonymity, a random letter with a number was assigned to each of the 324 students’ direct quotes (for example, ‘G-241’ indicated the student was in the G Class and was number 241 from the 365 students). Ethical approval was obtained from the Massey University Human Ethics Committee.

The photographs and texts were analysed together using inductive thematic analysis to identify patterns across the data, capturing the meanings that the children gave to their photographs. Thematic analysis is a qualitative descriptive approach described as ‘a method for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within data’ (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 79). The analysis initially involved analysing the data and identifying the meanings of what children described. The analytic process involved the following phases: (a) Read each transcript to familiarize with the data, (b) generating initial codes by making descriptive notes using children’s own words, (c) Identify initial themes by providing text quotes to illustrate the main idea of each theme, (d) reviewing themes by identifying recurrent themes across transcripts and (e) defining and labelling themes. This allowed patterns to emerge, subthemes were categorized and key themes were identified accordingly. To ensure rigour, three research members analysed the data and, through group discussion, reached consensus on the codes, themes, sub-themes and labels, to ensure that the contents were suitably represented. In the event of contradictions, the team re-evaluated and redefined the themes accordingly.

Findings

At the War Remnants, the suffering body is an essential object through which the narrative of the US war in Vietnam is constructed. Suffering is not only a representation of the materiality of the body but also a visual manifestation of the pain of war. The dimensions the war-produced suffering have been grouped thematically into two central themes: The first theme involved the suffering body as social category membership, with subthemes of ‘we’ and ‘other’. The second theme is related to national identity, with the subthemes of victorious identity and national independence. The visual representations emphasized the suffering body as a crucial element in the spatial–temporal dynamics involved in the construction of collective identity. Photo-elicitation method generates rich description and informative thoughts and feelings about suffering. This method enables the capture of multiple layers of meanings, potentially creating a deeper understanding of children’s unique experiences at the War Remnants Museum.

War-produced suffering: ‘we’ and ‘other’

Through photographs, the children provided contextualization, illustration and evidence to construct their narratives on suffering. The children used descriptors like ‘suffered’, ‘suffering’, ‘pain’ ‘painful’, ‘harm’ and ‘hurt’ to align with their images of the suffering produced during the war. Through their photographs, children were able to express their thoughts on what and who caused the suffering. Children’s photographic narrative centred on the causes of war (foreign invasion) with the actors (aggressors and victims), actions (violence and cruelty) and outcomes (suffering and death). Children’s photographs connected suffering to a foreign invasion: G249 stated, ‘Because this image reflects the cruelty of the people who invaded our country’. With their documentary function, photographs bear witness to the evidence of harm and suffering caused to Vietnamese people. Some children depicted the US military as the aggressor and summarized the suffering in terms of military violence and injustice: I338 affirmed, ‘This photo shows the cruel face of foreign invaders and the most brutal things they can do to an invaded country’. Some children selected photographs to provide proof of injustice and harm. These images of suffering have testimonial capacity to the suffering: D148 asserted, ‘I chose this picture because this is a witness to the crimes of American soldiers’.

Through their photographic narratives of suffering, children construct their own social category membership of ‘we’ and ‘other’ to indicate a sense of belonging. Children used the descriptor of ‘we’ to express their belongingness as Vietnamese, while portraying the US military as the other: H284 explained, ‘This photo shows the cruelty of American soldiers and the pain we endured’. When interpreting suffering, children evaluate both their ingroup and outgroup and use suffering to imbue social categories with meaning. Children’s photographic narratives of suffering depicted the US military as the aggressor and used descriptors like ‘evil’, ‘abusive’, ‘inhumane’ and ‘immoral’, ‘cruelty’, ‘violent’, ‘barbaric’, ‘brutal’, ‘cold-blooded’ and ‘savage’ to describe their actions: G258 expressed, ‘I wanted to highlight the cruelty, heartlessness and immoral of the American soldiers’.

Many children viewed their people as innocent, helpless and vulnerable victims in need of rescue especially, civilians, elderlies, children and babies. The innocence of the victims was positioned against the perceived brutality of the aggressors: B41 observed that ‘everyone is killed, including the elderlies, young children, pregnant women, showing the brutality of the American army’. Many children expressed their thoughts on suffering around specific group of photographs such as children who have birth defects from exposure to Agent Orange. They perceived children as passive innocent victims and the ongoing suffering of the war imposed on innocent children and babies was unjust: C94 mentioned the ‘many children who were disabled and deformed … . They are innocent and do not deserve this outcome’. Similarly, I349 singled out babies as a particularly impactful: ‘I chose this photo because I felt sorry for innocent babies … . These ill-fated babies are deformed by Agent Orange poison’.

Children used their photographs to capture a complex mixture of feelings including anger, fear, sadness, empathy, that were evoked by the experience. Many children narrated their feelings through their photographs: G246 reflected, ‘I chose this photo because I could not hold back the tears when I took it. I was really upset about the cruelty of war’. Some children experienced sadness: C84 described ‘when I took this photo, I felt very scared and sad’. Images of suffering evoked empathy towards Vietnamese war victims. C85 showed empathy: ‘When I looked at this photo, I felt very sad and could understand how they felt when they had to endure such pains. This is a very sad photo’. Children were moved by the innocent victims of Agent Orange: I325 recounted ‘I was very impressed and touched by this picture. I sympathize for the people who suffer from Agent Orange poison’. For some children, images of suffering evoked emotional outrage and fear: G241 responded, ‘I am outraged, scared of the war. I chose this photo because this is the scariest picture’. Some children reported extreme fear to the point of physically trembling: H298 admitted ‘When I took this photo, I was very emotional and my hands were trembling with fear’. So too, I327 explained, ‘When I took the picture, I felt very sad, my legs were trembling, I could not contain my emotions in the face of the disregarding, barbaric acts of the Americans’.

Negotiating identity: victorious identity and national independence

Children presented photographic narratives of dead bodies, charred bodies, bleeding bodies, mutilated bodies, poisoned bodies, injured bodies and disfigured bodies. In some instances, these bodies are unrecognizable with only legs, arms, torsos, or heads. However, for many children, they recognized these bodies as the suffering Vietnamese body. In their description of suffering, many children de-individualized suffering, creating a message of national suffering. Children photographic narratives revealed a sense of collective suffering for the Vietnamese people: D151 ‘ … because this picture expresses the pain of the nation’. Children centralized the suffering of the Vietnamese body: F214 stated ‘the photo shows the evilness and cruelty of American soldiers inflicted upon the Vietnamese … ’.

For many children in the amidst victimhood, there was a sense of bravery, heroism and stoicism in the suffering. Children used descriptors of ‘brave’, ‘heroic’, ‘courageous’, ‘sacrifice’, ‘determination’ and ‘resilient’ to characterize the Vietnamese people. Many children perceived that they came from generations of brave and resilient people and the suffering Vietnamese were regarded as heroes in the children’s narratives: D139 shared that ‘after seeing this image, I saw the Vietnamese as heroes … very brave and resilient’. They acknowledged the commitment and determination of the Vietnamese soldiers: I353 felt ‘respectful since experiencing the harsh war but the Vietnamese people still tried to come through’. Some children acknowledged the sacrifices made for their country such as A8, who highlighted that the Vietnamese soldiers ‘dared to sacrifice themselves to drive out the invaders … deserved to be respected and remembered forever’. Children experienced feelings of gratitude for the sacrifices made by the older generations: H302 admitted to feeling ‘grateful to these people who had been in pain and suffered to make sacrifices for our country’. Some children came to appreciate the life bestowed on them and expressed the desire to repay their good fortune: C83 reported being ‘grateful and found myself very lucky – I will try to study hard to help the country and repay those who have sacrificed’.

Many children admire the older generations for the socially valued outcomes in gaining national independence: I324 confessed ‘I feel very lucky to be born into a peaceful world. This made me feel very grateful and admired the bravery of generations of our fathers decades ago’ and B65 reflected, ‘I chose this photo so that everyone can see how the heroes of the old days endure to get Vietnam to where it is today’. The experiences of gratitude and admiration served to generate solidarity: H320 explained, ‘I chose this image because it speaks to the solidarity and love for each other in the family members of Vietnam’. Children experienced pride in their people: H305 said, ‘I admire and take pride because of the determination and courage of the Vietnamese people in general’. Similarly, H281 perceived, ‘show the unfaltering solidarity of the Vietnamese people … which became the foundation of pride for the following generations’. Pride was associated with national belonging: B69 revealed that ‘I'm proud to be Vietnamese’.

Discussion

Children’s photographic narratives capture the political complexity of the larger milieu encompassing place, people and history. Photographs of atrocities, suffering and death play a critical role in the interpretation of the dark site. Photographs, however, are not a literal depiction of the dark site but instead can be interpreted in multiple ways, reflecting and responding to historical realities (Lennon & Foley, 2000; Sharpley & Stone, 2009). Through photographs, the children provide illustration, evidence and contextualization to construct their historical narratives. With their documentary function, photographs bear witness to the evidence of harm and suffering caused to Vietnamese people. Photographs have the testimonial capacity of symbolic representations of the war, as they can act as a medium for the socially constructed meanings of place and people’s experiences. Photographs can thus contextualize human suffering within a dark site, to provide a wider meaning and understanding of the historical event.

Photographs as relational objects

Photographs are ‘relational objects … occupying the spaces between people and people and people and things’ (Edwards, 2005, p. 27). Photographs have the ability to extend socialities which ‘create a form of subjectivity, bringing those distant in time and space into a present’ (Macdonald, 2003, p. 236). In the context of the War Remnants Museum, the suffering body is not only as historical artefact related to the US war in Vietnam but a significant site for the construction of collective identity. Although many individual bodies may display various traces of war destruction, the uniqueness of these suffering bodies lies in the fact that they all belong to one national group. For many children, these are not just war-produced suffering bodies, but also representations of what it may means to be Vietnamese. The suffering body promotes a sense of collective identity based on shared suffering and victimhood, struggles and sacrifices, heroism and triumph, and victory and national independence. The suffering body can be viewed not only as representations of national identity, but also in other forms of narratives concerning the current situations involving the ongoing suffering of the Vietnamese people.

Social identity is derived from the identification with other members of a specific group (Tajfel, 1978; Turner et al., 1987). Through their photographic narratives of suffering, children distinguish themselves and create a sense of shared experience with the categorization of ‘we’ and ‘our’. As such photographs of suffering can be very persuasive due to their capacity to evoke strong identification responses, create a shared narrative of the historical event and promote a coherent social identity of the group (Gillen, 2014). Children identify with and locate themselves within the experience of suffering which not only allows them to construct their social identity but also reinforces the connection between children and the suffering people, perceiving that ‘their suffering’ becomes ‘our suffering’. The shared experience is important at this dark site, as it transforms the stories of suffering into collective narratives, preserves them as collective memories and allows younger generations of Vietnamese to share in their collective history. As such photographs of suffering can be highly influential because of their capacity to encapsulate memories of a specific group (Hariman & Lucaites, 2003). Thus, in turn, photographs may impact the collective understanding of and relationship to a particular dark site, creating meanings through individual and collective remembrance. From the social identity perspective, the Vietnamese national identity is not a set of inherent characteristics that belong to the individual, but instead, it emerges from the interplay between the person and their specific events.

Social identity is based not only on the perceived similarities to other group members, but also on the perceived differences between one's ingroup members and outgroup members. Children documents suffering from the war which includes knowledge of their ingroup’s history (such as the US war in Vietnam) and their historical relations with the outgroup (such as the foreign invasion from the US). The process of self-identification allows children to construct their identity narrative based on their position within the social group to which they belong (Turner et al., 1987). War-produced suffering body revolves around the construction of identity within different groups, including civilians, victims, heroes and aggressors. Children’s photographic narratives of suffering depict the Vietnamese as innocent victims or brave heroes and the US military as the aggressor. The identities of these groups convey political messages about who is viewed as belonging to the ‘us’ and who is the ‘other’. This can lead to a perceived sense of responsibility for the suffering caused to the Vietnamese people.

Photographs as emotional objects

Photographs are thought to evoke emotions (Friedrich & Johnston, 2013; Gillen, 2014; Hughes, 2008). Images of suffering are powerful cues eliciting strong emotions in children. Edwards (2015) suggests that ‘ultimately photographs are evidence of affect, of how people feel, and think and negotiate their worlds … ’ (p. 248). Photographs can stimulate thoughts and enhance emotions. Some children selected extremely emotional photographs of innocent civilians, suffering victims, courageous heroes, strong soldiers and violent aggressors. These images evoke a complex emotional mixture of fear, anger, disgust, sadness, empathy, admiration and pride. These emotions can reflect how children feel about belonging to an ingroup and how they relate to an outgroup. In dark tourism, suffering can evoke emotions, making it valuable for analysing how emotions can promote a sense of belonging and form a collective identity. According to social identity theory and self-categorization theory (Tajfel, 1981; Turner et al., 1987), an individual’s emotions can be influenced by their group membership (Mackie et al., 2000; Mackie & Smith, 2018). Specifically, at the War Remnants Museum, group identification can have an impact on group-based emotions and the appraisal of the suffering endured by many Vietnamese.

For many children, images of suffering stimulate emotions of sadness, empathy and sympathy for the member of their ingroup who are harmed by the members of the outgroup. These children expressed disapproval of the perceived wrongdoing involving both direct and indirect mistreatments of the Vietnamese people (Batson et al., 2009; Sousa et al., 2009). Further the War Remnants Museum presents blame-relevant information for wrongdoings (Gillen, 2014). For some children, images of cruelty and violence from the US military provoke fear, anger and disgust (Quigley & Tedeschi, 1996; Rozin et al., 1999). These feelings are related to group-level emotional experiences that connect the perceptions of accountability and blame of wrongdoings to a sense of self and others (Aquino & Reed, 2002; Goodwin et al., 2014). The experiences of anger and disgust serve to evoke a negative evaluation of the ‘other’ (Rozin et al., 1999). Thus, children condemn US military for the unjustifiable acts of harm and injustice, reflecting their negative evaluation of the outgroup.

Some children selected photographs to depict acts of generosity, loyalty and self-sacrifice from the brave Vietnamese. Hence, children experience feelings of gratitude, admiration, respect and pride to foster group solidarity (Algoe et al., 2008; Davis, 2006; Haidt, 2003; Tangney & Dearing, 2002). Solidarity is a distinctive characteristic of social identity approach (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). Solidarity captures a sense of shared membership with others, particularly with those they identify in this specific social context. Social identity shapes children’s sense of solidarity and enables them to identify with the past generations perceiving the injustice as something done to ‘us’. Expressed through solidarity, children view individual experiences of suffering as collective injustice. Solidarity enhances a sense of ‘we-ness’ and ‘Vietnamese-ness’ in the shared social identity (Batchen et al., 2012). Thus, solidarity plays an important role in creating, maintaining and strengthening ingroup identity and coherent collective war memory.

Additionally, through their photographic narratives of suffering, children express feelings of admiration and pride. Children’s photographic images of suffering is specifically linked to victorious identity and national independence, with pride being a crucial element of the group membership. Pride involves not only how one feels about oneself as a member of a social group, but also the psychological significance of that group membership (Williams & DeSteno, 2009; van Osch et al., 2018). Children express feelings of pride on behalf of their social group, and belonging to their national group is the source for feelings of pride for them. When experiencing this group-level pride, children may construct meanings about the War and communicate their emotions in ways that reflect their group’s social identity (Kuppens et al., 2013; Mackie & Smith, 2018).

Implications and directions for further research

Many dark tourism sites are morally enmeshed with suffering and death. The main methodological question is whether researching with children at such sites may require an alternative approach than other forms of tourism. Specifically, researching with children at sensitive dark tourism locations necessitates the use of strategies to enhance the quality of data collected, through promoting their active participation in the research process. Photo-elicitation presents interesting insights into how children make sense of the exhibits they encounter at the War Remnants Museum. The findings indicate that much of what children described about suffering were made possible only due to the use of photographs, both those displayed in the museum and those obtained through the photo-elicitation method.

From a theoretical perspective, photo-elicitation has been demonstrated to be a creative method in dark tourism for obtaining rich narratives of children’s experiences. This has led to the emergence of new and interesting results for theory building. First, children’s photographic narratives on suffering have much to tell us about their emotional experiences. As such the need to view children’s emotional experiences at dark sites in a new and more complex manner. Central to this discussion is the need for researchers to further conceptualize the role of moral emotions in dark tourism studies. At the War Remnants Museum, photographs of suffering have a moral force (Gillen, 2014). Children’s photographic narratives are not morally neutral regarding the suffering of the Vietnamese people. The suffering of civilians, including children, women and people born after the war, is framed as symbols of innocence, which gives the victims an elevated moral position. Moral emotions may influence how visitors define the context of the dark sites and their relationships within them. The ways in which images of suffering are strategically positioned by the dark sites to evoke moral emotions require closer examination. This has important implications for how the site is governed.

Equally critical is photographic images of suffering may be contentious affective sites for intergroup relations. Appraisals of the conflict at the dark sites may occur at an intergroup level. Images of suffering victims are not only about the victims themselves but also function as evidence of crimes committed by the US military. Through their photographic narratives, children criticize the US military’s treatment of the Vietnamese people. Specifically, this can be seen in how children’s emotions are used in expressing their judgments about the ‘outgroup’ who can be blamed and condemned for the harm inflicted on the victims of the ‘ingroup’ (Haidt, 2003; Quigley & Tedeschi, 1996; Roppola et al., 2019). Careful examination of group-based emotions will generate new insights into the ingroup, the outgroup and the dynamic between groups, all of which may impact both intragroup and intergroup judgments and behaviours. By focusing on group-based emotions, we can extend our understanding of emotions beyond the individual level (Tangney et al., 2007). Thus, researchers need to ask how emotional responses to imageries of suffering can be understood as a framework to inform intergroup relations.

From a methodological perspective, this research illustrates the value of the photo-elicitation method with children in dark tourism. Photo-elicitation method advocates a collaborative approach to reduce the power differential between researchers and children (Price, 2023). This collaboration is essential to effectively engage with children. Furthermore, photo-elicitation and worksheet approach not only engage children directly in the research process but also generates data ‘with’ them rather than ‘on’ them. The photo-elicitation method enables children to focus on exhibits that they deem important. This method provides children with the freedom to capture and explain what was meaningful to them, including their selection of the images and their illustrations of their experiences through photographs as well as words. Additionally, photo-elicit method captures copious details within a single image, enabling a multifaceted examination of the subject matter to create meaning. As such photo-elicitation reveals the potential for contextualizing, interpreting and displaying suffering in dark tourism, which in turn brings different layers and insights to the research. By facilitating the collection of rich and insightful narrative data, the photo-elicitation method provides a deeper and more nuanced understanding of how children perceive the exhibits. The outcome of photo elicitation involves collaborative efforts of the researchers and children, as they engage in joint theorizing of children’s dark tourism experiences.

Photo-elicitation can be useful when studying sensitive, highly emotional and difficult to articulate subjects (Croghan et al., 2008). In this study, the photo-elicitation method enables children to communicate ideas related to war-produced suffering and can be a particularly effective method for understanding children’s interpretations of the US war in Vietnam. This is because children may not always have the capacity to articulate their thoughts about the exhibits at the War Remnants Museum, but they can effectively communicate those thoughts through their photographs. Suffering may be difficult to describe without the visual clues that the children provided. This method has made the War visible and served to imagine suffering. That is, not only do photographs assist children in describing suffering, but they also enable them to show what suffering is. Second, photo-elicitation method enables children to express complex feelings in connection with viewing images of suffering. It is possible that children may not have the language skills to explain their feelings or the literacy to describe their experiences. Thus photo-elicitation method is a creative way for children to explain their feelings and experiences through photographs (Cappello, 2005; Clark-Ibanez, 2004). Photo-elicit method offers multidimensional visual representations of the US war in Vietnam, and thus does not require the Vietnamese children to be articulate or possess high levels of literacy to share their experiences of the War Remnants Museum. Further Photo-elicitation can help researchers and children to elucidate the complex relationships between history, emotions and identity. Photo-elicitation method enables children to reflect on their history, construct meanings and express their feelings, as well as to understand how they think about themselves and their own collective identity.

This research raises two important questions for researchers who work with children in dark tourism. Can participant-produced photographs be considered as standalone artefacts that can be interpreted and analysed on their own? And are photographs only used for photo-elicitation interviews? In the context of the War Remnants Museum, images cannot be left to themselves to convey their meanings. Images of suffering are often polysemic and open to multiple interpretations, making it difficult for researchers to interpret them without textual description. Thus, photographs are dependent on text to effectively communicate their meanings. In this study, each photograph was accompanied by its own narrative panel, created by each child, which assisted in the discovery of meanings that might not have been obvious in the photograph alone. This approach provides the researcher additional information for interpreting both the photographs and the accompanying textual data. The meanings provided by the children serve as valuable insights for understanding the content captured in the photograph. Therefore, photo-elicitation method can be effectively employed for data collection and analysis with children in dark tourism, with limited or no adult involvement, despite being underutilized thus far.

There are some limitations to be noted. An important limitation of this research is that photographic images, being visual texts do not have fixed meanings. They can have multiple interpretations and be experienced differently by different observers. To address this limitation, we employed a member-checking method to minimize the potential misinterpretation. Another limitation is that findings from this research are not able to be generalizable to other dark tourism sites. The nature of suffering is situated within the specific historical context of the US war in Vietnam. With its specific people, place and event, the photographic narratives focus on the suffering at this particular dark site. War-produced suffering can be a rich source of symbols and meanings in framing the discourses of dark sites. As such more work is needed to examine how other dark sites present suffering. A research focus on a diverse range of dark sites would gain new insights into different practices in the exhibition of suffering in dark tourism. Furthermore, to gain insights into the symbolic meanings of suffering, it would be interesting to compare different photographic representations of suffering across multiple sites with differing levels of darkness across the dark tourism spectrum. It should also be noted that the sample diversity is confined to Vietnamese school children. Therefore, due to potential differences in demographic and/or cultural profiles, the data cannot be generalized to all visitors. Future studies exploring suffering experiences across different groups of visitors will address this issue. Thus, comparing interpretations between different groups of visitors would make important contributions to theory and practice in dark tourism studies.

Concluding comments

This study is aimed at utilizing photo-elicitation as a research method to (re)present and theorize children’s experiences in dark tourism. This approach shows how children interpret images of suffering to make sense of the historical events at the War Remnants Museum. Through their photographic narratives, children construct multilayered meanings of suffering. Furthermore, photographic narratives of the suffering offer an important dimension in which to investigate collective identity in dark tourism. Additionally, by identifying a variety of emotional experiences, this research opens new avenues for further research. Photo-elicitation offers a creative way of exploring children’s perspectives of the exhibitions, which enlarges and deepens our understanding of dark tourism.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).