Visual Culture

The readings were very interesting. It struck me how often visual metaphors were unintentionally evoked in the reading and even in my mind as I read. The isolation of visual aspects of "reality", culture, and other aspects of or issues addressed by ethnography does indeed some problematic.

For my project, I do not see (no pun intended) the analysis of visual culture playing a prominent part. While the images produced and used by the staff and their bosses have entered my observations, taking photographs or videos would not be appropriate and probably not very helpful given my focus.

The idea to "shar[e]...agency" between the researcher and "the researched" (a problematically structured sentence, I realize) struck me as at once novel and then as a incredibly obvious. (Such a consideration delves into the purpose of anthropology, which seems even more nebulous than the definition of "ethnography", "culture" or "visual culture". In any case, I do hope to include the wishes and needs of my subjects. I feel as if I am working for them, telling their story. I hope that is not an improper angle.

Trying to pin-down visual culture may prove problematic to the point of being unproductive. As with any other source of information about this grander, truer reality (which seems the aim of all academic study to elucidate without suffering the blindness of the man that became wise in Plato's Allegory of the Cave). While reflexivity and ethical issues must be addressed, the author made a great point: the utility of image-capturing tools depends on everything from the projected identity of the researcher to the culture that is being studied.

More on this later after some mulling.