ANTHROPOLOGY 550
ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELD METHODS

MF 1:30-3:20, Denny 401

Exercise and Readings for Monday, November 10
Photo Ethnography

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FRIDAY HISTORICAL READINGS
Oct 10: Pioneers
Oct 17: Expertise
Oct 24: Cliffords
Oct 31: Danger
Nov 7: El Dorado
Nov 14: Emotions
Nov 21: Natives
M Dec 1: Assistants
Dec 5: Summary


MONDAY EXERCISES
Sep 29: Experience
Oct 6: Observation
Oct 13: Interview
Oct 20: Discomfort
Oct 27: Formal
Nov 3: Survey
Nov 10: Photo
Nov 17: Video
Nov 24: Digital
 Your seventh class exercise is due for today, on photo ethnography. Photography has been a part of ethnography and ethnology since their very beginnings, but it was not until Bateson and Mead's study of Balinese Character that it was used as a primary method of ethnographic inquiry. Now almost all ethnographic writing is accompanied by photos, but the extent to which photos are used as an explicit methodology varies. There are also increasing numbers of participatory photo ethnographies, as well as ethnographies of photography. Your assignment is to do a photo essay on a topic of ethnographic interest to you:
  • Chose a place and topic
    • Take a large number of pictures (at minimum 50). A majority will turn out to be duds, but there will be some gems.
  • Choose the gems and put them in an order that will tell a compelling story.
  • By 9:00 a.m on the day of class, post your photos (you may have to reduce file sizes to fit them in the GoPost format) with captions for each, and a short essay about how photography as a method is particularly appropriate to the topic you are investigating.
We will spend our class time commenting on each other's photo essays.

In preparation for this exercise, read the following:
  • Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead, Balinese Character. Read the introductory essay and browse the photos. I'm going to leave the book "on reserve" at the anthro front desk so you can look at it. There is an online version, but it's restricted because of copyright, and I can hardly photocopy the whole book.
  • Jenny Chio, Chapter 4, Take a Picture with Us, from A Landscape of Travel
  • Danny Hoffman, Mining the Border
  • Tami Blumenfield, Indigenous Media and Empowerment.