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)Initial frame 2)Collecting data* 3)Coding 4)Frame 5)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