REFLECTIONS ON ETHNOGRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHING (original) (raw)
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Visual Ethnography Journal -Special Issue
Ethnography and Photography are founded on relational practices which are based on encounter and storytelling. In such an observation, participation and representation space, these disciplines are configured as two forms of writing with their own methodological specificities, as well as zones of contact. Considering the profound technological changes in the recent decades (such as greater accessibility to photographic devices, the increasing production and circulation of photographs, the diversification of virtual spaces, the new digital ethnography), what are the current links between ethnographic research and photography? What kind of contribution do the visual languages offer to the production of anthropological knowledge? Which kind of relations are established between texts and images? How creative and/or authorial artistic research combines with scientific knowledge? The aim of this issue of Visual Ethnography, edited by Marina Berardi and Chiara Scardozzi, is to generate a critical reflection starting from intersectional points between the two disciplines and the plurality of visions and methods. It is conceived as a moment of thought and comparison on the role and the future of photography in ethnographic research, through a theoretical and visual approach, to start a reasoning about theoretical and practical tools of cultural and social anthropology, considering how photography and/or post-photography and its uses declined through the different devices, in addition to making the research contents visible, can also be considered as a real collaborative practice, methodology of intervention, restitution and/or autonomous authorial narration. The call is open to papers and photo essays focused on experiences of collaborative visual ethnographies that use photography to solicit specific narratives and / or include methods of participatory photography aimed at involving groups and communities in the research and co-production of visual contents; researches that explore the possibilities of creating subjectivity in the online life by sharing new forms of self-representation of the body, gender, identity; reflections that interweave ethics and aesthetics in the representation of otherness ; studies concerning photographic collections that are interpreted through their political and public use and inserted (or censored) within the so-called heritagization processes; researches relating to the most innovative and creative trends in contemporary photography that redefine the boundary between reality and fiction starting from the idea of "post-truth", using different media and methods.
Visual Anthropology Review, 2009
uninhabitable.'' This is a point to which she does not return sufficiently in her analyses of each genre, so that when she returns to it in the conclusion, the reader is left as unclear as she seems to be. What are these other stereotypes? Do they not still exist on more retrograde programs? How does each kind of program render them uninhabitable? She does not address these questions clearly enough for each kind of program, perhaps because her analyses reveal an ambivalence toward these stereotypes in the various series. More time may be necessary in order to determine the impact these programs will have on media portrayals of women, some of which have only very recently ended.
Reflecting Visual Ethnography: Using the Camera in Anthropological Research
uninhabitable.'' This is a point to which she does not return sufficiently in her analyses of each genre, so that when she returns to it in the conclusion, the reader is left as unclear as she seems to be. What are these other stereotypes? Do they not still exist on more retrograde programs? How does each kind of program render them uninhabitable? She does not address these questions clearly enough for each kind of program, perhaps because her analyses reveal an ambivalence toward these stereotypes in the various series. More time may be necessary in order to determine the impact these programs will have on media portrayals of women, some of which have only very recently ended.
SOME THOUGHTS ON ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELDWORK AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Studia Ethnologica Croatica, 2011
Drawing on the existing documenting parallels between ethnographic fieldwork and photography, the paper discusses dilemmas connected to the relationship between the ethnographer and his research participants. The paper argues that the ideas of sensory ethnography and arts practices, as well as a reflexive approach to visual anthropology, especially collaborative and participatory methods, could prove useful in transcending boundaries between the researcher and research participants. Furthermore, the experience of taking pictures might help us towards a better understanding of ethnographic fieldwork. For this purpose, the paper offers an analysis of a number of photographs.
Ethnography and Photography today: new perspectives, technologies and narratives
Visual Ethnography Journal, 2021
Ethnography and photography are relational practices configured as two forms of writing with their own specificities that intersect. Considering the profound technological changes in the recent decades and the crisis of ethnographic authority and photographic representation, the attempt of this special issue is to generate an overview of the plurality of theoretical and methodological approaches relating to the use and production of images in social research.
Essay - The Study Of Photographic Images In Visual Anthropology
2013
The aim of this text is to explore the possibilities for the study of the photographic image in the scope of Visual Anthropology. It begins by presenting the predominance of the Visual in contemporary society and the current anthropological interest in the questions of visibility. The text then refers the ability that images have to expose wider social problematics. Soon after it points to some methodological possibilities for the study of visual productions and the dependency that those methodologies have on a certain fascination that the images exert on the analyst. It is this fascination that comes in play in the choice of a photographic theme for this essay. It explains why this focus on a broader photographic discourse and establishes several parallels between the activities of both photographers and anthropologists. It thus analyzes the advantages that the indexical character of photography brings into the anthropological study, but it warns to the necessity of recognizing the subjective influences at play in the making of a photographic image. It attempts to make evident the benefits that the study of photographic images might bring to the general field of Anthropology. Finally it mentions the limits of such a photographic study.
Visual anthropology: Changing roles in fieldwork
International Journal of Modern Anthropology, 2022
Visual Anthropology, the study of visual systems, is a specialized study of culture involving photographs and films. The main objective of the study is to present the chronological development and changing trends in visual anthropology. Visual anthropology has a long history started with the photography of various cultural aspects by some professional photographers, and then there was an addition of supplementary use of photographs and films in ethnographic description. Later, reflexive, participatory and dialogic movements were introduced to more depth and objective studies, which finally led to the applied interventions with the use of photo voice technique in community-based participatory research to address social, environmental and health issues and problems. The paper provides an in-depth overview of enhancement in visual techniques and methods used for communication of anthropological observations and insights applicable for human welfare. Keywords: Visual anthropology. Visual system. Anthropological fieldwork. Film. Photography.