The light emitted by electron avalanches in a parallel plate chamber c
an be used to image the tracks of photoelectrons liberated by the inte
raction of an incident-x-ray with the gas filling the chamber. The dif
fering morphologies of photoelectron tracks and high-energy charged pa
rticle tracks can be used for background rejection. The initial direct
ion (before scattering) of the liberated photoelectron also contains i
nformation about the polarization of the incident radiation. We have b
uilt a small test chamber with which we have imaged photoelectron trac
ks using an intensified CCD camera. Our results show that optical imag
ing could be used in a hard x-ray imaging polarimeter useful for astro
nomy.