In this session we start to put together what we have learned so far to reflect on ways to make good use of photographs in ethnographic practice. Through the concept of photo-ethnography, we ask how to present ethnographic insights through images. How can they produce knowledge, especially in a comparison with text? How does this knowledge connect to anthropology's interest for sensory experience? Finally, we will look at a concrete example from my own work in southern Italy, to put down some general principles for a photo-ethnographic practice.
Through this session you will have a chance to learn:
• How anthropology's predilection for text has created a long-standing under-appreciation of the potential of images, and some strategies to counter the primacy of text in the juxtaposition with photography.
• To think about photography's ambiguity as a strength in the frame of sensory ethnography, through the principle of evocation.
• Some general principles to understand our photographs as an ethnography, connecting them to existing images in a given fieldsite and with anthropological questions rather than specific formal qualities.
Critique exercise for today: Select a photograph or a series of photographs that are ambiguous - or in other words that were made to be open to multiple interpretations. Trace these possible interpretations and explore the role of ambiguity in the images: is it a resource, a pitfall, a danger, is it a conscious strategy by the author or an unintended consequence?
You’ll briefly present it to your breakout group during class (up to 5 mins.).
You’ll briefly present it to your breakout group during class (up to 5 mins.).
Key Reading:
• Pink, S. 2001. Doing Visual Ethnography. London: Sage. Chapter 3 “Photography in Ethnographic Research”.
5.1 Photos and text
It will be a constant refrain throughout any visual or sound anthropology course that the main discipline has a way of favouring text and downplaying images and sounds unless they have an illustrative function. In this video we make several points on the relationship between photographs and texts, and look at examples of photo essays. Issues of power come back again, but this time it is all about a balance of power between text and images.
Readings:
• Hastrup, Kirsten. 1992. “Anthropological Vision: Some Notes on Visual and Textual Authority.” In Film As Ethnography, edited by Peter I. Crawford and David Turton. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press.
• Mitchell, W. J. T. 1994. ’The Photographic Essay: Four Case Studies’. In Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation. 281-322. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
• Pauwels, Luc. 2012. "Conceptualising the visual essay as a way of generating and imparting sociological insights: Issues, Formats and Realisations”. Sociological Research Online, 17: 1, 76-86.
• Pink, S. 2001. ‘Ethnographic Photography and Printed Text’ Chapter 6 in Doing Visual Ethnography. London: Sage.
• Sutherland, Patrick. 2016a. ‘The Photo Essay’. Visual Anthropology Review 32 (2): 115–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/var.12103.
• Sutherland, Patrick. 2016b. ‘VAR SUPPLEMENTS: Patrick Sutherland on Learning Documentary Photography and Constructing Photo Essays from Groups of Photographs’. Society for Visual Anthropology (blog). 1 November 2016. http://societyforvisualanthropology.org/2016/11/var-supplements-patrick-sutherland-learning-documentary-photography-constructing-photo-essays-groups-photographs/.
Extra: There aren't a lot of anthropological engagements with photo essays, but recently Visual Anthropology Review and Cultural Anthropology have partnered for a series called Writing with Light. Have a look at those examples for inspiration and to get a sense of the variety of approaches.
5.2 Evocation
From a strictly realist perspective, photographs can appear to be very limited. They lack univocal meanings, can't convey the voices of those who appear in them or any other sound, they struggle to convey duration and some don't even record colours. Yet they are not obsolete, nor have they been replaced by video. In this video we look at expressive or evocative photography as a way to exploit the potential of still images to suggest meanings and sensations beyond the literal representation of what they portray. We link this with an anthropological interest for experience and the senses, and look at the example of Juan Orrantia's photographic work.
Readings:
• Becker, H. S. 1998. 'Categories and Comparisons: How We Find Meaning in Photographs". Visual Anthropology Review, 14: 3–10.
• Berger, John, and Jean Mohr. 1982. Another Way of Telling: A Possible Theory of Photography. New York: Pantheon Books.
• Edwards, Elizabeth. 1997. “Beyond the Boundary: A Consideration of the Expressive in Photography and Anthropology.” In Rethinking Visual Anthropology, edited by Marcus Banks and Howard Morphy, 53–80. London: Yale University Press.
• Orrantia, Juan. 2012. ‘Where the Air Feels Heavy: Boredom and the Textures of the Aftermath’. Visual Anthropology Review 28 (1): 50–69. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-7458.2012.01110.x.
• Pink, S. 2009. Chapter 1 'Situating Sensory Ethnography: from Academia to Intervention' in Doing Sensory Ethnography. London: Sage: 7-22.
Extra: Read this short piece by Stuart Franklin on ambiguity in photography and think about how it can be a weakness and a strength.
5.3 Photo-ethnography
In order to pin down a few principles for the practice of photo-ethnography, that is, the use of photographic images in anthropology as conveyors of ethnographic arguments, I make an extended example revolving around my work in Basilicata, southern Italy. This region has had a history of representation that has been entwined with anthropology since the 1950s. In 15 years of work there I had to respond to this legacy and to the way it is transformed into heritage by local people. So even creative skills must depend on critical skills in an anthropological approach to photography, just like this course mixed critique and creation.
Readings:
• Cox, Rupert, and Christopher Wright. 2012. ‘Blurred Visions: Reflecting Visual Anthropology’. In The SAGE Handbook of Social Anthropology, edited by Richard Fardon, Oliva Harris, Trevor H. J. Marchand, Cris Shore, Veronica Strang, Richard Wilson and Mark Nuttall, 116–29. Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington, DC: SAGE.
• Ferrarini, L. 2020. ‘Photographing as an anthropologist. Notes on developing a photo-ethnographic practice in Basilicata’. In Sonic Ethnography: identity, heritage and creative research practice in Basilicata, southern Italy. 169-186. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Wright, Christopher. 2018. ‘Photo-Ethnography’. In Anthropology Beyond Text, 1–5. The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. New York: Wiley-Blackwell. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea2017.
Extra: Experiment with different placements of images and text in Spark. Look at my photo-essay on wheat festivals in Basilicata for inspiration.
Some questions
• Do you feel that the discussions we had throughout the course about images and their interpretation, about context and power, have affected the way you make photographs? How?
• What do you think is the place of evocation in anthropology? Have you ever come across similar ideas in your studies so far? Have you ever thought about the kind of subjects that sensory ethnography explores as possible topics?