Course syllabus

Ethnographic Film and Photography

 Course Content

In this course we will explore the uses of photography and film in the production and dissemination of anthropological knowledge. Anthropologists have been using photography and film for more than a century both to create more-or-less permanent records of people, objects, and events, and to communi­cate anthropological ideas to professional audiences and the general public. Part of the power of photography and film lies in their apparent realism, in their seemingly close relationship to reality. But the relationships between the material world and images on film have been the subject of debates in philosophy, art theory, and the social sciences, and these debates will inform our examination of the use of photography and film as research techniques and forms of communication.

In looking at photographs and films, it is critical to recognise that choices are made at all stages in the production of such images. These choices constitute a process of representation, and representation in this sense of the word will be a key concept in this course even as it has become a critical concern in anthropology as a whole during the last forty years. The choices that visual anthropologists make in their selection of subject matter, imagined audience, composition, construction of a narrative (or not), and mode of representation are acts of authorship. A goal of this course will be to increase your awareness of the authorship of anthropological images, i.e. to increase your awareness of the inten­tions, choices, and perspectives of photographers and film makers which contribute to the creation of ethnographic images.

Representation is critical in both visual and textual anthropology, and an important aim of this course will be to use the exploration of visual anthropology to reflect back onto representation in anthro­pology more generally. Anthropologists have been particularly concerned with the politics of repre­sentation, i.e. with the realisation that what is represented and how it is represented are political acts connected to questions of ethnographic authority and relations of power between the ethnographer and his or her subjects as well as between the ethnographer and her or his audience.

Learning Outcomes

At the completion of the course, you are expected to:

• understand the use of photography and film in the production and dissemination of anthropological knowledge;
• be able to identify modes of representation in ethnographic film making;
• understand the choices involved in making anthropological photographs and films;
• understand the political dimensions of ethnographic representation; and
• understand the relevance of visual anthropology to broader contemporary theoretical debates in anthropology.

Teaching Staff

​Lectures

Mondays 10am-12noon in Room G17, Commerce A Building

Wednesdays 12noon-2pm in Room G25, Clock Tower East Building

Indicative Lecture Outline

Assessment