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This paper uses pairs of photographs taken in public settings to develop macro‐level generalizations about social life in two U.S. cities: New York and Los Angeles. Drawing from the work of Erving Goffman, my analysis of these photographs is based on the assumption that social life consists of a series of setting‐based contests for social status which, in their totality, combine to form what Randall Collins has called “The Microfoundations of Macrosociology.” The paper concludes by addressing some of the similarities and differences between the O.S.’s two largest cities and closes on a reflexive note: these depictions of two environments may tell as much about my own orientation while residing in them as they reveal about the cities themselves.

This paper uses photo‐elicitation to study the relationship between two sub‐populations of Vietnamese refugees; the highly entrepreneurial Chinese‐Vietnamese and the more numerous ethnic Vietnamese. Drawing from in‐depth interviews based upon photographs of Vietnamese and Chinese‐Vietnamese refugees, the project seeks to find if and how refugees can visually determine a person's ethnicity, the traits respondents associate with either of the two sub‐population, and if younger, Americanized refugees understand ethnic boundaries differently than the older, Vietnam‐oriented generation. Result indicate that the Chinese‐Vietnamese and ethnic Vietnamese generally can determine the ethnicity of persons shown, that their characterizations of both themselves and the “other” group are fairly consistent, and that ethnic boundaries appear to be of diminishing importance with the passage of time in the U.S.

(1986). Student critiques and teaching visual sociology. Visual Sociology: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 8-10.