OrientationObservationIn-depth interviewsDocument analysis and semiologyConversation and discourse analysisSecondary Data
SurveysExperimentsEthicsResearch outcomes
Conclusion
5.12.4.2 Acquiring and selecting ethnographic images
There is an argument that photography or video in an ethnographic fieldwork setting is inevitably intrusive, affects rapport and inhibits the activities of the research subjects. It may also lead to unusual or reactive activity by the research subjects, which the researcher may presume is the norm. Furthermore the image maker may try and create 'ideal' images or filmic sequences, again interfering in the normal activities by artificially setting up shots.
Gregory Bateson responded to these concerns when he explained how he and Margaret Mead acquired the 759 photographs in Balinese Character. Over a two-year period of field research they took about 25,000 still photographs and 22,000 feet of 16mm film (the book contains only images from still photography). As such, the constant recording mean that camera consciousness disappeared for both subjects and photographer. He stated:
We tried to use the still and the moving picture camera to get a record of Balinese behaviour, and this is a very different matter from the preparation of "documentary" films or photographs. We tried to shoot what happened normally and spontaneously, rather than to decide upon the norms and then get Balinese to go through these behaviors in suitable lighting. We treated the cameras in the field as recording instruments, not as instruments for illustrating our theses…. We usually worked together, Margaret Mead keeping verbal notes on the behaviour and Gregory Bateson moving around in and out of the scene with two cameras….
For work of this sort it is essential to have at least two workers in close cooperation. The photographic sequence is almost valueless without a verbal account of what has occurred. And it is not possible to take full notes while manipulating cameras. The photographer, with his eye glued to the a view finder, vets a very imperfect view of what is actually happening, and Margaret Mead (who is able to write with only an occasional glance at her notebook) had a much fuller view of the scene…. (Bateson and Mead, 1942, pp. 49–50)
The close cooperation Bateson described was also evident at the time in the teaming up of photographers and 'documentary writers and economists to express sociological ideas' (Harper, 2000, p. 4) evident in the work of Caldwell and Bourke-White (1937) and Agee & Evans (1939).
Bateson concluded that the decision as to what to photograph during the fieldwork was led by focusing more on family relations than, for example, agricultural work. Subsequent selection of photographs for the book was in part pragmatic, affected by time constraints, and by three other factors: scientific relevance, quality of image and size, as the photographs had to be fitted onto photographic plates to fit into the book format. As far as possible relevance was primary, even where some of the photographs were poor quality.
The issues raised by Bateson and Mead, which go way beyond photographs as mere illustrations of a thesis, have resounded through anthropological discussions of the relevance and role of photographic images. To what extent do images speak for themselves, or is their meaning only provided by a verbal context? To what extent are images delusionary in providing a 'real' picture because they are dependent on the point of view of the photographer? To what extent do photographs provide the reader with the opportunity to construct their own meaning rather than being tied to the verbal meaning of a text? Just what is the role of photography as a research tool? This rehearses the issue of naturalism, a concern of ethnographic studies involving participant and non-observation. Are photographs ideologically constructed or natural? Clearly, Bateson argued that, although influenced by their research concerns, the vast collection of photographs were primarily obtained by shooting anything that seemed interesting or reflected everyday life. This is in stark contrast, for example, to the mainly posed photographs in CharlesHattersley's (1908) study.
