The purpose of the IVSA is to promote the study, production, and use of visual images, data, and materials in teaching, research, and applied activities, and to foster the development and use of still photographs, film, video, and electronically transmitted images in sociology and other social sciences and related disciplines and applications. Such purposes include but are not limited to the following:

• documentary studies of every day life in contemporary communities;
• the interpretive analysis of art and popular visual representations of society;
• studies of the messages, meanings, and social impact of advertising and the commercial use of images;
• the analysis of archival images as sources of data on society and culture;
• the study of the purpose and meaning of image-making such as recreational and family photography and videography.