Ethnography & Photography:
issues in theorizing photography
Zoe Leonard as a case study
SM4134 Visual Ethngoraphy & Creative Intervention
Dr. Linda C.H. Lai
February 2009
Ethnography:
field visits, before and after
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Initial frame
Collecting data*
Coding
Frame
Interpretation:
text – subtext
the interpretive circles
Three widespread views in the discussion of photography
1)
The photographic process is, in some sense, automatic.
Mechanical, mind-independent, agent-less, natural, causal, physical…
2)
The resultant images are, in some sense, realistic.
Authentic, faithful, objective, truthful, accurate…
3)
The realism of photographs, in some sense, depends on the
automatism of the photographic process.
Diarmuid Costello and Dawn M. Phillips, “Automatism, Causality and Realism:
Foundational Problems in the Philosophy of Photography,” in Philosophy Compass
What are existing theories of photography mainly about?
(1) Epistemic Vs Aesthetic debates
Epistemology concerns how knowledge is produced.
The epistemic issues of photography often raise questions about what
kinds of truth a photograph produce…
Aesthetic issues concern the perceptual and formal aspects of
photography.
The epistemic and the aesthetic cannot be separated. In the case of
photography, they always work together, whether in the case of
the researcher, or the user.
What are existing theories of photography mainly about?
(2) Medium-specific approach Essentialist view of
photography: focusing on the photographic medium
alone
“A medium-specific approach assumes that the material means of
production supply the necessary and sufficient conditions that are
definitive of photographs.” (p. 3)
Vs theories of photography that supposes some conception
of their object.
Usage / Wittgenstein…there is no particular essential features common
to all photographs… “Photograph is a family resemblance concept.”
Family resemblance?
Photography is a human activity by which the making of the photograph
facilitates the recall / retrieval / re-association / connection… of/with
what already exists for a particular purpose.
Using photography in qualitative research
The use of still photographs as a methodological tool
The use of still photographs as a means of presenting
social research.
The use of photography as a research method.
**This requires a theory of how pictures get used by both picture makers and
viewers.” // data, data-generators, treatment of how viewers, informants or
researchers treat and understand photographic images.
Dona Schwartz, “Visual Ethnography: using photography in qualitative research,”
Qualitative Sociology, 12(2), Summer 1989.
(Unique properties of) photographic articulation
Interpretation and use
Ambiguities of photographic imagery
Dona Schwartz
Photography as a social transaction
A photograph as art
[photographer-artist]
[photographer is “source.”]
A photograph as a precise machine-made record of a subject
[accuracy]
[subject of photograph is source]
PROBLEM WITH THE ABOVE DISTINCTION:
1. “Photographic meaning is conceptualized as being contained within
the image itself.”
PROBLEM WITH THE ABOVE DISTINCTION:
art Vs record
“Photographic meaning is conceptualized as being contained within the
image itself.”
i.e. The photograph is a “receptacle” (artist, subject) that generates
different possible meanings
2.
Spectator is missing in the process of constructing photographic
meaning
Consider, for example, Roland Barthes’ idea of “punctum” and “studium”
(See his work “Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography.”)
“studium” = the cultural, linguistic and political interpretation of a photo
“punctum” = personally touching details grounded in relationship
3. Usage
An artist’s ethnography via photography:
Zoe Leonard
“I see, I photograph.”
“I am showing you what I have seen and
photographed, and not what I have invented.”
“That is how it is.”
Documentary mode of photography…?
Can a photograph be an objective document?
From a visual ethnographer’s POV…
the intention of making objective document is an observable trait
i.e. a documentary mode is an observable fact, an observable intention
We can look at a photograph’s framing and other observable facts of
production.
i.e. the documentary intention of a work is the subtext of a photograph.
However, one must not turn “perceivable intention” into an
absolute rule.
The photographer-researcher is interpreting…
The meaning of a photograph has to be understood in terms of focus
and context.
The usual visual grammar of photography has to be reconsidered…
Does a wide shot necessarily contain more details than a tight shot?
-
-
A wide shot may not mean an emphasis on background
environment. (For example, a photograph with a wide shot of a
highway may well be calling attention to an empty highway as a
focus.)
A tight shot (a close-up) of an object does not necessarily mean a
focus on the object itself; it could be calling attention to the fine
texture.
Zoe Leonard, the ethnographer
This emphasizes ethnography as a path of discovery…
+ an artistic practice that highlights discovery over pure assertion of
the artist’s belief
“Zoe Leonard follows the traces and scars of the world in order to
understand the structures of the world, to comprehend the essence
of past and present, space and time, existential and social relativity.”
What to do with a photograph…the interpretive circles
5 Ws (basic observable content)
Composition and facts of production (aesthetic
side)
Composition and facts of production (interpretive
side)
Use (usage) – audience, maker
The optical unconscious
***change of frames