This session starts to introduce ways to compensate the power imbalances we discussed in the previous two sessions. We look at the work of photographers who tried to undermine the authority of their own representations through dialogue, both as a practice and as a paradigm for anthropology. Many of these works are based around exchanging photographs with the people who appear in them and hearing their comments on how they appear. Other photographers used collaboration with their subjects, sometimes even staging images together with them, to make their representations less unidirectional.
Through this session you will have a chance to learn:
• The origin of the dialogical paradigm in anthropology, with examples from writing and from media practice.
• To approach the interview practice of photo-elicitation critically, and in a dialogical way as a way to empower the people who appear in the photographs.
• To question the role of the photographer as concerned witness, and to practice collaboration instead as a way to decentre the gaze of the photographer.
Critique exercise for today: Select a photograph or series of photographs in which you can explain how a certain technique (framing, editing, choice of light or film, juxtaposition) relates to what the photographer wanted to say. In other words, explain how a certain photographic technique was used to convey a message.
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:
• Harper, D. 2002. 'Talking about Pictures: a case for photo elicitation'. Visual Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1.
3.1 Dialogical anthropology
The video starts from describing two important contributions to the understanding of anthropology as a form of dialogue, those of Dennis Tedlock and that of Steven Feld. I then provide the example of a photofilm I made as a student, which involved one of the protagonists of the images in a collaborative process.
Readings:
• Feld, Steven. 1987. “Dialogic Editing: Interpreting How Kaluli Read Sound and Sentiment.” Cultural Anthropology 2: 190–210. https://doi.org/10.1525/can.1987.2.2.02a00020.
• Mandel Butler, Udi. 2009. 'Notes on a Dialogical Anthropology’ Anthropology in Action 16(3): 20-31.
• Tedlock, Dennis. 1979. 'The Analogical Tradition and the Emergence of a Dialogical Anthropology' Journal of Anthropological Research 42:3: 483-496.
Extra: You can watch A Migrant's Tale in its entirety on my website. Just keep in mind it is old work (2008) and that I was a student at the time! Do you find the way I worked inspiring? Could you think of a project that uses similar methods?
3.2 Photo-elicitation
We call photo-elicitation an open interview method that asks people to respond to photographic images, which may have been made by the researcher or belong to personal or institutional archives. The video describes two different approaches, that of John Collier and that of Douglas Harper, highlighting the potential of photo-elicitation to challenge the authority of the researcher. The main example comes from the world of documentary photography, with Jim Goldberg's book Rich and Poor.
Readings:
• Bell, Joshua A. 2010. "Out of the Mouths of Crocodiles: Eliciting Histories in Photographs and String-Figures", History and Anthropology, 21:4, 351-373, DOI: 10.1080/02757206.2010.521156.
• Buckley, Liam. 2014. “Photography and Photo-Elicitation After Colonialism”. Cultural Anthropology 29 (4):720-43. https://doi.org/10.14506/ca29.4.07.
• Collier, J. & Collier, M. 1986 [1967] "Interviewing with Photographs' Chapter 8 in Visual Anthropology, Photography as a Research Method. Albuquerque: UNMP: 99-115.
• Pink, S. 2001. Doing Visual Ethnography. London: Sage. Chapter 3 “Photography in Ethnographic Research”: 66-75 only.
Extra: You can read a good and concise analysis of Jim Goldberg's project Rich and Poor in this 'Study' by Kojo Abudu. Looking at Goldberg's work, do you feel like he is taking sides? Does his personal position towards the very different conditions of the people he photographs emerge?
3.3 Photographic collaborations
Many photographers feel a responsibility towards the people they photograph, especially if they are in trouble. However, different photographers react in different ways. For a long time socially committed image-makers thought that their role should be that of 'concerned witness', but during the 1970s some critics pointed out that the public's over-exposure to images of suffering was creating an anesthetising effect. Photojournalists were pointed out as voyeurs who exploited the pain of others. In this video we look at photographers who, by using collaboration and exchange within their practice, try to address issues of objectification and disempowerment - in particular Susan Meiselas and Patrick Willocq.
Readings:
• Azoulay, Ariella. 2018. “Unlearning the position of the photographer as expert”, in Susan Meiselas, Mediations. Paris, Barcelona, Bologna: Jeu de Paume - Fundació Antoni Tàpies - Damiani: 94-119.
• Bowles, L.R. 2017, 'Doing the Snap: Storytelling and Participatory Photography with Women Porters in Ghana.' Visual Anthropology Review, 33: 107-118. doi:10.1111/var.12129
• Cameron, Elizabeth L. 2013. 'The Fieldworker and the Portrait: The Social Relations of Photography' in Peffer, John, and Elisabeth Lynn Cameron, eds. Portraiture & Photography in Africa. 141-173. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Gallop, J. 2003. 'The Unhappy Woman and the Empty Chair’ Chapter 2 in Living with His Camera, 55-90. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
• Graham, Aubrey Paige. 2016. ‘Pictures and Politics: Using Co-Creative Portraits to Explore the Social Dynamics of the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’. Visual Methodologies 4 (1): 10–29. https://doi.org/10.7331/vm.v4i1.59.
• Kratz, Corinne A. 1996. 'Okiek Portraits: Representation, Mediation, and Interpretation in a Photographic Exhibition.' Cahiers d'Études africaines 141-142: 51-79. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/cea.1996.2001
Extra: If you want to know more about Patrick Willocq's projects, check out his website. There's a good feature on Songs of the Walés, which includes audio recordings and lyrics for the songs. And here is a comment on the project that relates it to anthropology.
Some questions:
• As much as we can appreciate the efforts made by the authors used as examples in this session, what are the issues of representation that persist despite their collaborative and dialogical methods?
• Since in some cases we are talking about collaboration and authorship, do you think some of these works could have been co-authored by some of the subjects? In situations of collaboration, where do you draw the line that determines whose name is on the cover?
Critique exercise for next time: The pairing of text with images can be problematic. Select one example in which the meaning of an image has been influenced in a decisive way by the accompanying text (a caption, or a title). There are plenty of examples in the news, on social media or on newspaper front pages, and sometimes they can classify as deception. Can you unveil the deception through other images, or other presentations of the same image? What was the aim of those who provided that text?
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.).