Having an eye for it: aesthetics, ethnography and the senses

<jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Purpose</jats:title><jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to discuss participant‐led photography as a response to the author's need for an “aesthetic approach” to ethnography during fieldwork, including the importance of an embodied, sensory orientation to ethnography in organizational contexts.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title><jats:p>The paper reviews a range of literature and draws on the author's experiences to support a conceptual argument.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Findings</jats:title><jats:p>There is currently scant attention to the sensory dimension of ethnographic practice and the paper puts forward an agenda for future research.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Research limitations/implications</jats:title><jats:p>Suggestions are made as to how aesthetic and/or sensory ethnography can support changing landscapes of organizational research.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Originality/value</jats:title><jats:p>In drawing together multidisciplinary literature, the paper advances the agenda of ethnographic research in organizational life.</jats:p></jats:sec>