{"id":24312,"date":"2019-10-15T21:20:42","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T04:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=24312"},"modified":"2019-10-16T12:07:18","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T19:07:18","slug":"what-began-in-the-dark-blossomed-into-kindom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/what-began-in-the-dark-blossomed-into-kindom\/","title":{"rendered":"What Began in the Dark Blossomed into Kindom"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Dec 14 2013<\/p><\/div>\n

When I first introduced myself to Instagram (IG), I began clumsily. As someone who began with film and a darkroom, I found it to be clunky and structured. In time, however, God began to utilize my clumsiness for the Kingdom and kindom. The short story is that I was bedridden for six months. As I laid in the dark bored of watching tv and movies, I turned to my phone (because that was better, I thought).<\/p>\n

I was empowered by an Instagram photography group (@jjcommunity) and started a regional group in Los Angeles (@jj_losangeles). I posted weekly challenges and featured people every day. When it got to be too much, I asked for help. Several years later, when I moved to Portland, OR, I expanded the group to @jj_westcoast and then eventually passed it on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Here\u2019s where the visual ethnography became community and vice versa: I began to facilitate meetups (instameets) once a month, posting a place, date and time and people would show up (who knew?), we\u2019d walk around, shoot (pictures, that is), enjoy community, share knowledge with each other and have fun. What started in a place of darkness, God used with great love and I was forever changed as a visual ethnographer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the end of one instameet, I noticed a young teenager hanging around who had been a part of our group.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you need a ride?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. I\u2019m waiting for my parents to pick me up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh. What time do you think they\u2019ll be here?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUhhhh \u2026 they\u2019re on their way. They should be here soon,\u201d he said nervously looking at his phone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\u00a9Nancy Blackman<\/p><\/div>\n

I hung out. We began to talk and eventually, he said, \u201cI play tennis all the time with my twin, but I don\u2019t really have any friends. I like to come to these instameets because I love photography, but I don\u2019t have anyone to hang out with that also likes to shoot.\u201d He was 15 then. When he was 17, he became a moderator for the group.<\/p>\n

I kept trudging along, continually asking God what I was supposed to do with this and these people. To be honest, here is what my conversations with God would sound like, \u201cWhat the heck?! What am I doing?! Seriously, God. I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026\u2018good video and film records for research are ultimately the product of observation that is organised and consistent. The equipment, except in specialized circumstances, cannot replace the observer\u2019\u201d (19). And then one midweek day while running to shoot waves at The Wedge in Newport Beach with a photographer friend, I had a similar encounter, which completely changed my posture to this group. I posted up a notice, not really expecting too many people if any. As my friend and I wedged into the rocks, trying to stay dry, shooting away, I got a text from a young man.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAre you still at the spot?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d I replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got off work early so I\u2019m going to head there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCool.\u201d<\/p>\n

A half-hour passed, \u201care you by chance wearing a red shirt?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m right behind you.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And then I heard God whisper, \u201cput your camera down and sit and chat.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I maneuvered out of the rocks and sat next to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a camera. I just have a phone,\u201d he said nervously.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it a smartphone?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you have a camera.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long silence.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you like to shoot?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure. I just don\u2019t have any friends and I thought this would be a safe place for me. I noticed you do these things regularly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do! So next time, just come. We have lots of fun and you can learn a lot by just hanging out because some of these guys are professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh really?\u201d<\/p>\n

We chatted some more. He shot a few frames.<\/p>\n

At the next instameet, he showed up, made friends and began meeting up with some of them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What is ethnography? It \u201c\u2026 involves the ethnographer participating, overtly or covertly, in people\u2019s daily lives for an extended period of time, watching what happens, listening to what is said, asking questions \u2013 in fact, collecting whatever data are available to throw light on the issues that are the focus of the research\u201d (34).<\/p>\n

Although visual ethnography is a methodology (blah blah blah), it can be a way to show love.<\/p>\n

Forgive me if you read all of this and are wondering what happened or worse, seemingly patting myself on the back. I hated the book. WAY too much theory and not enough application. This was my way of making good of the reading. This post, however, has me in a bit of a directional quandary, so I appreciate your prayers.<\/p>\n

Pink, Sarah. Doing Visual Ethnography. SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\u00a9Nancy Blackman<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\u00a9Nancy Blackman<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\u00a9Nancy Blackman<\/p><\/div>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I first introduced myself to Instagram (IG), I began clumsily. As someone who began with film and a darkroom, I found it to be clunky and structured. In time, however, God began to utilize my clumsiness for the Kingdom and kindom. The short story is that I was bedridden for six months. As I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1655,1656,798,898,279,211],"class_list":["post-24312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-instameet","tag-kindom","tag-community","tag-photography","tag-pink","tag-visualethnography","cohort-lgp10"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24312"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24347,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24312\/revisions\/24347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}