![\"Doing](\"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Doing-Visual-Ethnography.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nJason mentioned recently his desire to throw a book across a room in frustration at the contorted writing of the author. While I did not ultimately use this book as a projectile, it was a close run thing, and the volume did teeter on the tips of my fingers on several occasions.<\/p>\n
First of all I had to come to terms with the author. I had no idea what visual ethnography is. Pink defines ethnography as: Right.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Oxford English Dictionary provides a slightly more straightforward definition: \u201cthe scientific description of races and cultures of humankind.\u201d<\/p>\n In essence, then, visual ethnography entails the use of visual images, photographs, videos and multimedia in studying and analysing culture and race.<\/p>\n \u201cA picture is worth a thousand words\u201d.<\/p>\n This book looks at the use of pictures and images of various kinds in this particular field of research and their interaction and use with written text.<\/p>\n Invariably, when we look at images, we interpret them in many different ways and through various filters. Pictures can evoke in us feelings and emotions and can provide us with a wealth of information. The question is whether the information that is given and received is objectively true or is subjectively variable. In this context, Pink addresses the concept of \u201creflexivity\u201d in research and in visual ethnography \u2013 that is the \u201cbias\u201d or \u201clens\u201d of the researcher, the informant or the reader in capturing, presenting and interpreting visual images. She argues that factors such as \u201ctheoretical beliefs, disciplinary agendas, personal experience, gendered identities and different cultures\u201d come into play. (39)<\/p>\n So different people can capture, use or look at the same image and interpret and understand the image in very different ways in their study and research and understanding of culture. Scientific-realist ethnography seeks to portray \u201cthe\u201d truth, whereas reflexive ethnography asserts that there is no objective truth. Pink focuses on the latter and the involvement and the centrality of the researcher or informant or viewer\/reader in determining and interpreting meaning.<\/p>\n The book is divided into three parts:<\/p>\n Part 1 looks at the theoretical context and the ethics of visual ethnography. How is information captured and distributed. What ethical considerations are involved (permissions for use, potential audiences etc.)<\/p>\n Part 2 has a chapter each on video and photography and looks at the issue of interpretation and the relationship between images and words.<\/p>\n Part 3 looks at the presentation of visual research, with chapters on the use of photography in printed text, videos and multimedia.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There is no doubt that we are living and working in an increasingly interconnected, visual and technologically complex world. There has been a real increase in the use of various visual media in gathering and presenting and interpreting information and knowledge (look at online newspapers and their increased use of video etc.).<\/p>\n While I do understand a little more the subject of visual ethnography than I did before I \u2018inspectionally\u2019 read this book, I am not sure to what degree it has informed or helped me in how I might use photographs, videos or multimedia in my research work. I was a little too blinded by the science.<\/p>\n All I can say at this stage is: thank God for Adler.<\/p>\n Geoff Lee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jason mentioned recently his desire to throw a book across a room in frustration at the contorted writing of the author. While I did not ultimately use this book as a projectile, it was a close run thing, and the volume did teeter on the tips of my fingers on several occasions. First of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"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":[493],"class_list":["post-9235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-pink-doingvisualethnography","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9235","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\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201can approach to experiencing, interpreting and representing culture and society that informs and is informed by sets of different disciplinary agendas and theoretical approaches.\u201d<\/em> (22)<\/p>\n