Technology+and+the+Social+Sciences,+Ethnographic+Film

=**What is Ethnographic Film?**=

Ethnographic film is the use of film, both movies and photographs, for anthropological and sociological use and study of various ethnicities and cultures. It is a process of study that started in the 1960s and has continued through today in various forms. There are, in general, two different kinds of Ethnographic Film; films made by Ethnographers personally for the purposes of their study, and those made by others (non-Ethnographers) but used by Ethnographers for their study. Those of the first kind (made by Ethnographers) generally fall into the categories of documentaries, while the second kind of Ethnographic Film can come in the form of other movies and stories made for different purposes whose stories focus on a community or culture for one purpose or another. Videos put up on Youtube, as well as documentaries made by non Ethnographers can also count in the second kind of Ethnographic Film.

Ethnographic Film takes its power as a study tool from its ability to combine the descriptive ability of an image, the actual ability to show what is being spoken of, with the ability to use text, words, or some other method of description to explain the context of the imagery and thus further explain what is actually being seen rather than leaving the image up to the open interpretation with no background on what is actually going on as can happen when simply using photographic evidence. With this power however, there must also come caution in how you view the film. Despite an appearance of neutrality and objectivity, camera's do not take pictures, the person holding it does. As such every shot is taken with a purpose to show you something, and what is trying to be shown can be leading, or in some cases misleading if the researcher doesn't take care with the shots that they use, or how they use them.

An example of a smaller Ethnographic Film can be found by following the link below. [|**http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzkoXLwutrQ&NR=1**] The video starts off showing some of the basic assumptions and views that are held about Heavy Metal music, and why the Ethnographer became interested in the subject in the first place. It then goes on to show how the person is setting up their ethnography, before going into it. Showing clips of interviews with people who consider themselves part of the culture, those who are neutral towards the culture, and those who actively dislike it. Interspersed with the clips are images and clips of people who are in the culture enjoying the music and otherwise acting out in a way that is easily identifiable as part of the culture that the video is about. The continuation continues in a singular fashion, interspersing clips with shots of text explaining what is going on and bringing everything into one, more easily understandable, message. It is important to note, that by a literal definition the video is not an Ethnic study, but rather of a niche culture that is not associated with any particular ethnicity. It does however still fall under the title of Ethnographic Film.

media type="youtube" key="1R7Jo8om5vQ" height="281" width="371" //A short video of a ceremonial dance during the Torres Straits expedition in 1898 led by A.C. Haddon. The team is said to have produced what is probably the first film recognized as being ethnographic. These scenes are said to be staged for the camera, which has become a common practice in the ethnographic films that followed (Ball and Smith, 305).//

=**Photography within Ethnography**= There is a question of whether the recent technologies of photography represent a realistic representation of the world in ethnography. Photographs are representations of what it is we see with the human eye, so it should be an exact record of reality. However, photographs don't always do this, what the viewer sees depends on their cultural and personal knowledge and the text that may be included with the picture (which is sometimes suggestive) (Ball and Smith, 305). What a viewer sees in a photograph with text may be completely different from what they see in the same photo without text. It also depends upon the person who is taking the picture. Since photographers usually look for aesthetic value, they have a way of altering the scene the camera actually captures. One example is the work of Bronislaw Malinowski.

Malinowski was born in Cracow, Austrian Poland (1884-1942) (Young, 2). Malinowski is considered a pioneer of anthropological ethnography, involving an abundant use of photographs in his fieldwork and ethnographic reports. He strived to be objective and present scientific views in his fieldwork; however he published ethnographies which had incorporated a lot of textual persuasion along with his photography in order to convince readers that what they were viewing was realistic (Ball and Smith, 307). Along with his textual persuasion he also made many other decisions when taking photographs for his fieldwork. He always had the height of the camera the same as the height of the subject, rarely did close- ups of subjects; he took a series of photographs in quick succession from different viewpoints and sometimes posed his subjects in the way of demonstrations and reenactments (Young, 17).

An example of his work, with text included, in the following link,suggests that the main subject has a favorite or most important son which is sitting on the right side of subject of the photograph and the rest are the less important sons. Without the text or taken from a different point of view this photograph may have been interpreted differently. More examples of his photographs may also be found at this link. []


 * Bibliography:**
 * Young, Michael. "Google Books." //Malinowski's Kiriwina: fieldwork photography, 1915-1918//.
 * Ball and Smith, 2001, "Technologies of Realism?" np 302-319 in P. Atkinson (ED.) Handbook of Ethnography. Sage

The way we view an image has transformed tremendously throughout history. This evolution in the way we see and deceiver images is largely related to the inventions of new devices. There have been many new technologies emerging over the past hundred years that have had a dramatic effect to the production process of an image. From a handmade painting to a simple black and white image and now to the colorful, fully enhanced images we view today; there has been a major change. This change has made a large effect on the viewers because the way an image is produced determines what the viewer sees.
 * __ The Evolution of Photo Viewing Through Technology __**

__**Traditional:**__ Traditional society is a model in which the image was rare and one of a kind. Images couldn’t be mass produced like the photos we have today. It would be one piece of art that could not be recreated or reprinted. This made it so each image was viewed more highly. There would be more of an appreciation, with a worshipper sense of viewing the image. It carried a more significant meaning with it. The sense that the image was special was way more prevalent in traditional society. Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica”, is a perfect example of traditional image viewing. This was a painting done in 1937, depicting events at the Spanish civil war. This painting is very much appreciated and has the worshipper sense of viewing. It is one of a kind therefore is looked at differently by the viewer. If it was a painting that could have been mass produced it would not have been looked at in the same manner. The time period in which this painting was created had a major influence on how it would be viewed. Modernity was when photography was becoming a prominent way to record and represent society. Images were being produced more often and cameras were becoming more accessible. With photos produced more easily in society the way people viewed images shifted. No longer were people worshipping one of a kind works and seeing such an importance to the image they were viewing. New technology that was created made it possible for more people to produce images, so this made viewers perspectives changed dramatically. This photo titled, “The Kiss”, shows the effect of modernity. This photograph was debated whether it was a candid or staged, but no matter what, it still displays how image viewing changed. The new technology made it possible for someone to snap a shot in the street very easily. This shows the change viewers had because it was not a one of a kind image. People simply viewed this image, but did not worship it. “The easy availability of photographic images in modern societies annuls the sense of aura historically attached to visual representations in premodern societies”(Ball and Smith p.2). This image was mass produced, which made it possible for many to view it, unlike the traditional painting that not many could actually view in person.
 * __Modernity:__**

__**Late Modernity/Post Modernity:**__ Late modernity represents a time when electronic images are being produced. Similar to modernity society this made it very easily for images to be produced which in turn made each image less special. The more available something becomes the less importance it carries and the viewer seeing it differently. With late modernity a new aspect came into play for views to become more interactive. New technological advances made it possible for many image producers to edit and enhance their images. This image shows how late modernity has an interactive viewer perspective. A simple photo of a flower is now done in digital and can have color enhancements and other photographic techniques to display an image. As you can see some parts are in focus and others are not. This makes the viewer more interactive because they have the ability to make an image look the way they want it, therefore altering the viewer’s way of viewing the image.

__Bibliography__: Ball and Smith. "Technologies of Realism". []- info on picture 1 [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V–J_day_in_Times_Square]- info on picture 2 []- Picture 1 []- Picture 2 []- Picture 3