Seeing and Preparing
It is always her eyes that I remember. I was on a mission trip to India with members of my church, we were climbing onto the chartered bus to go home after a long day of ministry activities. My friend Jamie and I were the last of our group to get on the bus, our translator Shibu was waiting next to the door for all of us to board before he did. Then we heard her. We turned to see a woman crying in Tamil, offering us her baby. Even in the dim twilight you could tell that her already dark skin was covered in dirt and grime from living on the street. She stood there pleading with us to take her baby with us. I was eighteen, Jamie sixteen we had no idea how to handle this situation. Thankfully Shibu was there, he spoke with her, gave her something, and sent her on her way. The whole encounter took a minute and yet it sticks with me to this day. When I think of it, it is always her eyes, bright white in contrast to her skin, glimmering with tears that I remembering first.
It is possible I could have prepared myself better for that moment if I had gone to the library and read up on India, maybe look at a National Geographic edition on India. In the pre-internet days doing research on a place was difficult for the non-academic. I of course did not prepare for my trip the way I should have, but one could argue that the lack of preparation allowed me to have this very visceral experience. When I contrast it with our recent trip to Hong Kong it amazes me how much some preparation can do for a cross cultural experience.
In addition to having read Pullinger and large portions of Tsang, I was able to watch the whole series on Hong Kong that Vox produced, I watched the episode of The Layover that Anthony Bourdain did at least twice, if not three times, and read numerous posting on what to expect and do in Hong Kong. This all resulted in a relative comfort with the place when I arrived. It was definitely different, no amount of preparation can prepare you for the experience of being in a place, but there was a level of comfort with what I was seeing that I did not feel completely out of place.
Pink points toward an academic approach to visual ethnography, which is no doubt important, but I wonder if the existence of popular visual ethnography is doing more for western culture. By popular ethnography I mean the existence of travel blogs, television shows, books, and documentaries. The documentation is not a rigorous as needed for academic research, but at the same time it is more accessible to the average person. At least I want to hope that the existence of popular ethnography is helping western culture. The hoards screaming unconscionable things about immigrants and refugees seem to indicate that popular ethnography has not done as much as I would like. Perhaps the real value of ethnography, both academic and popular, is in helping a single person to see a place or people with empathy and care. Then that person sharing that empathy with another person who has not yet had that experience. In this way both of my experiences, in India and Hong Kong, can help to bring more compassion and care into a world that feels like it is trying to tear itself apart.
About the Author
Sean Dean
An expat of the great state of Maine where the lobster is cheap and the winters are brutal I've settled in as a web developer in Tacoma, Washington. As a foster-adoptive parent of 3 beautiful boys, I have deep questions about the American church's response to the public health crisis that is our foster system.14 responses to “Seeing and Preparing”
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Sean,
I like your dichotomy of academic versus popular ethnography. Yes, popular ethnography is more accessible to everyone. My world has and continues to change as I travel and meet different people from different places with different views (which is why I love our DMIN program so much!) It would seem that traveling to other places, meeting different people, and learning different perspectives would certainly help many in the US. However, one can only learn from other people in other places if one wants to. I appreciate your wise thoughts. Blessings on you, H
You’re right, so much of VE or travel’s ability to change people is dependent upon their attitude towards change. I think what I was getting at (badly) is that those of us who want to change can change and the witness of our change can influence someone who doesn’t have that attitude yet.
I certainly agree on your point that, perhaps, popular ethnography isn’t doing as much good as we hope. I can report that every year after an international mission trip to somewhere in Central America, we will have both youth AND adult participants exclaim how they thought all of (Mexico, Nicaragua, The Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, etc) was like a “beach or island resort” no matter how much pre-trip reading or viewing we strongly encourage.
Thank you for sharing such a foundational memory of yours with us.
Your comment about post-mission trip comments reminds me of this quote from Bourdain.
Sean, I can visualize the scene that you saw in India so many years ago. Although I enjoy visual ethnography, I do think it hurts children in that they do not use their imagination like we had to many years ago. Also, I believe it can hurt the writing skills it that people do not know how to write something in a way in which someone else can visualize the experience. I think what we are learning today is that we need balance in all things.
One of our parenting philosophies is that we need to give our children a chance to get board, so they can use their imaginations. VE is a great tool, but I think learning to describe something with words is equally important. I agree completely that it’s all about balance or tension (or whatever your favorite analogy is) when it comes to using the tools provided to us.
Great thoughts, Sean. The ability to gain preparatory knowledge before going into an experience with people gives us a better understanding and opportunity to connect as we are not as distracted with the “just in time” orientation needed. There is an important lesson here about doing pre-work before engaging new people groups and settings that will cause us to not only be more comfortable, but enable us to engage people more fully.
Tammy that’s a great point about preparation being about not just feeling comfortable but also being able to engage with the people you are with or ministering to. Thinking back to the trip to India, I think I missed out on a lot because of my lack of preparation.
I really appreciated your post Sean. I’ve wondered too, how visual ethnography has changed ministry. We always give our students lessons on how to take photos appropriately. We teach them to think through how they are portraying each individual as they take their photos. You’ve got me thinking that maybe I could draw from this visual ethnography book in our training. If you had college-aged students at your disposal to teach them how to caputure photos and videos in a way that promotes seeing the whole person, what would you teach them?
Karen of all the comments yours stuck out the most, so it’s been being processed in the back of my head for a while. You’d think this means I have a lot of ideas, but really it’s only one. They need to capture b-roll. In documentaries or news reporting the camera folks spend time filming or photographing the area in order to provide context. I think students need to learn how to capture b-roll. Learning how to capture a sense of place in a photo is a skill that helps to tell stories. Also, focus on people’s eyes – if the eyes are in focus they’ll tell a story. I say that as a former photojournalist not just because of my story above.
Hi Sean. I really enjoyed your post – thanks so much for sharing! I thought your story about your trip to India and remembering so clearly the mother’s eyes was very powerful. I also appreciated your philosophy on ethnography opening the eyes of needs within the world through pictures and videos. If only people would listen and see! My heart breaks for the immigrants and refugees who are being turned away because they are not from ‘American First.’ How about…’All People Who Are Hurting First!’ I pray that people’s eyes can be opened and that empathy and care of others will become FIRST on everyone’s heart!
You’d hope that images would inspire some level of empathy. I think a thing about VE that needs to be embraced is that it’s impact is largely based upon the viewer’s willingness to be changed. For instance this image crushes me, but for others it’s just a person that wants to steal our tax dollars. I don’t entirely understand, but I know that the only way to change it is through relationships with people.
Hi Sean. I appreciate the point about popular vs academic. I can’t quite get my head around VE as a reliable methodology for research. I do see t’s benefits in popular telling of experience, but experience and perception must themselves be tested. With Pink’s version of hypermedia and the mass promulgation of misinformation it is likely to lead to less trust in the relability of mixed media. However, in communities where trust is established, mixed media is a powerful tool for encouragement and provocation and empathy.
Digby, I think you’re right that the impact or significance of VE is entirely subjective. I think it’s a great way for a person to explain their experience of a place. That being said, the viewer will likely have a different experience than the creator intended. As with so many other things, the impact of VE is dependent upon the relationship of the creator to the viewer. If the viewer feels distrust toward the creator, then no amount of work on the creator’s part will overcome that distrust. The opposite is true as well I suppose.