Working Images Visual methods such as drawing, painting, video, photography and hypermedia offer increasingly accessible and popular resources for ethnographic research. In Working Images, prominent visual anthropologists and artists explore how old and new visual media can be integrated into contemporary forms of research and representation. Drawing upon projects undertaken both ‘at home’ in their native countries and abroad in locations such as Ethiopia and Venezuela, the book’s contributors demonstrate how visual methods are used in the field, and how these methods can produce and communicate knowledge about our own and other cultures. As well as focusing on key issues such as ethics and the relationship between word and image, they emphasise the huge range of visual methods currently opening up new possibilities for field research, from graphic art to new media such as digital video and on-line technologies. Contributors: Cristina Grasseni, Gemma Orobitg Canal, László Kürti, Ana Isabel Afonso, Iain R.Edgar, Paul Henley, Victoriano Camas Baena, Ana Martínez Pérez, Rafael Muñoz Sotelo, Manuel Ortiz Mateos, Manuel João Ramos, Olivia da Silva, Sarah Pink, Roderick Coover, Felicia Hughes-Freeland. Editors: Sarah Pink lectures in the Department of Social Sciences at Lough-borough University, UK. László Kürti teaches at the University of Miskolc in Hungary, and Ana Isabel Afonso lectures in the Department of Anthropology at Universidade Nova, Lisbon. Working Images Visual Research and Representation in Ethnography Edited by Sarah Pink, László Kürti and Ana Isabel Afonso LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2004 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge's collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2004 Sarah Pink, László Kürti and Ana Isabel Afonso for selection and editorial material; individual contributors their contributions All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Every effort has been made to ensure that the advice and information in this book is true and accurate at the time of going to press. However, neither the publisher nor the authors can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. In the case of drug administration, any medical procedure or the use of technical equipment mentioned within this book, you are strongly advised to consult the manufacturer’s guidelines. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-76936-8 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-33929-0 (Adobe e-Reader Format) ISBN 0-415-30641-8 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-30654-X (pbk) Contents List of figures vii List of colour plates x List of contributors xi Acknowledgements xiii 1 Introduction: situating visual research 1 SARAH PINK 11 PART I Visual fieldwork methods 2 Video and ethnographic knowledge: skilled vision in the practice of 12 breeding CRISTINA GRASSENI 3 Photography in the field: word and image in ethnographic research 28 GEMMA OROBITG CANAL 4 Picture perfect: community and commemoration in postcards 43 LÁSZLÓ KÜRTI 5 New graphics for old stories: representation of local memories through 66 drawings ANA ISABEL AFONSO 6 Imagework in ethnographic research 84 IAIN R.EDGAR 100 PART II Representing visual knowledge 7 Putting film to work: observational cinema as practical ethnography 101 PAUL HENLEY 8 Revealing the hidden: making anthropological documentaries 120 VICTORIANO CAMAS BAENA, ANA MARTÍNEZ PÉREZ, RAFAEL MUÑOZ SOTELO, MANUEL ORTIZ MATEOS 9 Drawing the lines: the limitations of intercultural ekphrasis 135 MANUEL JOÃO RAMOS 10 In the Net: anthropology and photography 156 OLIVIA DA SILVA AND SARAH PINK OLIVIA DA SILVA AND SARAH PINK 11 Conversing anthropologically: hypermedia as anthropological text 164 SARAH PINK 12 Working with images, images of work: using digital interface, 182 photography and hypertext in ethnography RODERICK COOVER 13 Working images: epilogue 201 FELICIA HUGHES-FREELAND Index 215 Figures 2.1 A cow is being displayed to the judge 21 2.2 Judge and an APA technician inspect the paraded candidates 22 2.3 My host with two fellow breeders evaluating my host’s cattle 23 on his ground, on the occasion of the visit of the cattle fair judge 3.1 Figures 3.1–3.6: photographs taken between 1990 and 2000 32– as part of anthropological fieldwork among the Pumé Indians 40 of Venezuela 4.1 An archaic type of postcard with a small picture and text on 48 the same side 4.2 Grid-like postcard of the Budai Mill and Budai Store, and the 50 Bende Restaurant, c. 1910 4.3 Fragment of the main street and general store of József 51 Popper, 1920 4.4 Soldiers play cards and read newspapers in World War I. 54 Volhynia, Galician-Russian frontline, 10 September 1916 4.5 A grid-like, five-picture postcard showing the local grade 55 school, railroad station, Catholic church, the craftsmen’s association building and the heroes’ statuette, c. 1930s 4.6 The dawning of state socialism as reflected in a four-picture, 56 grid-like postcard depicting the local farmers’ co-operative, headquarters of the Workers’ Party, the grade school and the co-operative’s milk storage facility, c. 1949 4.7 One of the new postcards produced by the Historical and 59 Cultural Association, 2001 5.1 Crossing the river using a petrol cube as buoy 71 5.2 Helping to cross the river with a rope 72 5.3 Crossing the river in pairs 72 5.4 Throwing a thread to the other side 74 5.5 Crossing with the rope engine 75 5.6 Smuggling commercial goods 76 5.7 Woman ploughing a field with children on her back 77 5.8 Baby safely sat down in a furrow covered by a coverlet 78 5.9 Woman hand-spinning and rocking her children 79 5.10 Detail of spindle and distaff 80 5.11 Using recycled wooden wheels to make a cradle 81 8.1 Carmen and Amalia with some members of the film-making 125 team during the trip to present Mujeres invisibles at the Bideo Mostra de Donosti-San Sebastian 11.1 Women’s Worlds: project map 172 11.2 The contents page of the CD 173 11.3.1 A case-study page 175 11.3.2 The same page with Virginia’s words and video showing 176 11.3.3 The same page with author’s commentary 176 12.1.1 Signs to Bouzeron 183 12.1.2 A porter resting 183 12.2.1 Subject and object: a harvester with an empty bucket 186 12.2.2 Subject and object: a bucket of grapes 186 12.3.1 Framing and light: a porter with a full pannier 189 12.3.2 Framing and light: faces at lunch 189 12.4.1 Fragments: a worker in the vines 192 12.4.2 Shifts in perspective: dumping the grapes in a vat 192 12.5.1 Changing mood: harvesters at a moment of rest 195 12.5.2 Example of hypertext interface from Cultures in Webs 195 Colour plates Between pp. 156 and 157. 9.1 Snapshots (Addis Ababa) by Manuel Joffo Ramos, 2002 (from Ethiopian Sketchbook 6) 9.2 The Story of the Queen of Sheba by Jembere Hailu, n.d. (collection: Manuel Joffo Ramos) 9.3 First sketches of the painting Arwe! Makeda by Manuel Joffo Ramos, 2002 (from Ethiopian Sketchbook 6) 9.4 Buk (Nuer) Manuel Joffo Ramos, 2002 (collection: Museum of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa) 9.5 Arwe! Makeda (not yet displayed) by Manuel Joffo Ramos. 10.1 Captain José Caravela (Matosinhos) 10.2 Vic and Anne Willoughby (Grimsby) 10.3 Angelina Sousa (Matosinhos) 10.4 Antonio Pinhal (Matosinhos) 10.5 Alf Hudson (Grimsby) 10.6 Kurt Christman (Grimsby) 10.7 Nelson Hunter (Grimsby) 10.8 Joaquim Santos (Matosinhos) Contributors Ana Isabel Afonso lectures in the Department of Anthropology, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, teaching Research Methods; Ethics and Anthropological Practice. Her main research interests are new technologies, social change and development, kinship and applied anthropology. She has done fieldwork in north-east Portugal and co-ordinates a project on Portuguese gypsies. Her recent publications include Terra, Casa e Família (forthcoming); co-edition of Retóricas sem Fronteira (2003) and Visual Teaching, Virtual Learning (2002). Victoriano Camas Baena is a Psychotherapist at the Centre for Interpersonal Relations and a Social Researcher and has made a number of documentaries with A Buen Común. Roderick Coover teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His works include the interactive CD-ROM, Cultures in Webs: Working in Hypermedia with the Documentary Image (Eastgate.com) and the documentary, Burgundy and the Language of Wine (NaturalWords.org). His awards include a Whiting Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Humanities and a USIA Hays-Fulbright Fellowship. Iain R.Edgar lectures in Anthropology at Durham University, UK. He has written Dreamwork, Anthropology and the Caring Professions: A Cultural Approach to Dreamwork (1995), and Guide to Imagework: Imagination-based Research Methods (forthcoming). Cristina Grasseni is researcher in Anthropology and Epistemology, Bergamo University, Italy.