Imaging process as ethnographic inquiry

Bibliographic Data

ID2162891
AuthorsVictor J Caldarola (University of Pennsylvania, corresponding author)
Year1988
Volume1
Issue4
Pages433-451
Publication date1988-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueVisual Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0894-9468 • E-ISSN: 1545-5920
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/08949468.1988.9966499
OpenAlexW1976787153
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited19

This paper considers the predicament of ethnographic photography in the current period of paradigm transition. The dominant mode of ethnographic imaging has remained severely constrained by the genre conventions of documentary, and so the practice was relegated to the poetic margins of social science discourse. But, as this paper argues, the paradox of visual representation is not inherent in the medium, rather it stems from the imaging process as formalist aesthetic. An alternative formulation involves foregrounding the process itself as a system of communication, thereby severing the photograph's ontological commitment to reality

Aesthetics · Art · Epistemology · Ethnography · Foregrounding · Literature · Mode (computer interface · Photography · Poetry · Political science · Politics · Process (computing · Representation (politics · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropology · Computer Science · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Philosophy · Rhetoric and Communication Studies

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