Field Study Assignment 3 Due date: 12 October
FSAs should be submitted to Pitch2Peer (P2P) before 18:00!
Photo Series: The images should give significant attention to framing and composition and be generally attentive to camera techniques and aesthetics. While Freeman’s criteria for individual photographs should guide your selection of images, your main task will be to think in image-series that develop an idea through combinations.
Part 1 – Photo-survey
The first series asks you to collect a series of images that provide a survey of cultural and social patterning and is primarily motivated by a documentary impulse. Use Colliers’ method for making a photographic survey/inventory (handout). Produce a series of 10 images from field studies that attempt to create a collection of items that constitute some sort of set. In addition to photographs, you may include up to 3 drawn depictions and/or video stills. Place each image in a slide presentation. Give equal attention to each individual photo by making each image the same size and placing only one image per slide/page. Title the series in a way that describes the set, write a short overall description of the collection (approx 25 words), plus a descriptive caption (approx 10-20 words/each) for each image. Save as a PDF to lock formatting.
Part 2 – Photo-essay
The second series asks you to employ a narrative or argument-driven logic that structures a series of photos as a progression that employs montage as a dialectical method and is motivated by conceptual thinking. Consider Sutherland’s description of a photo-essay and review the Writing with Light peer review rubric (see below) in the making of your assignment. Your photoessay should include a series of 10 images from your field studies, and may combine object and location photographic studies with up to 3 drawn depictions and/or video stills. Create a slide presentation with your photographs. You are encouraged to juxtapose images, contrast sizes, and experiment with different styles of page layout by considering how the images relate to one another. Include introductory text and accompanying captions (500-800 words total). Save as a PDF to lock formatting.
Meta-commentary: All assignments must be accompanied by a brief written reflection (200-300 words max) that provides a ‘meta-commentary’ about the student’s intentions with the assignment’s selection.
FSA 3 Peer Review Due date: 16 October
Peer reviews must be completed before 23:59!
For the Field Study Assignment, assess both the photo-survey and the photo-essay according to these criteria, which have been adapted from the Writing with Light photo-essay journal’s reviewer rubric; Link ➙
- Formal Requirements: 10 total images (up to 3 hand drawn). Title describes set, introductory description, and each image has a descriptive caption (approx 10-20 words/each).
- Contribution to Anthropological Knowledge: What is the contribution to anthropological theory and/or ethnographic knowledge? Does the author make reference to and build upon broader discourses in text, photography, and/or film? Does the author show an explicitly anthropological understanding of images, text, representation, and the cultural context under consideration? Does the use of the photo-survey format allow for theoretical discussions that would otherwise be neglected?
- Inquiry: Does the photo-survey build a clear, compelling, and original survey of cultural and social patterning? Is their depiction appropriately conveyed through the image–text configuration provided?
- Production Quality and Theory of the Image: This criterion is intended to challenge notions of the photograph as mere description, i.e., an unmediated look into a given social world. Photographs require technical skills and artistic ability and, as such, the author should show a strong understanding of the photograph as an aesthetico-political form. Are the photographs compelling as independent productions? Do they show a cognizance of framing, lighting, and color? Does the photographer articulate his or her technical approach in a way that might compellingly challenge a viewer’s way of seeing?
- Image-Text Relationship: Do text and image work as accomplices? What is the relationship between text and image? Is this relationship generative? Primarily, we are concerned as to whether the author recognizes that images and text convey different kinds of information and that they have sought to maximize the affordances of each media in their photo-survey. Submissions should not rely on either media, but especially text, in order to make their arguments. Instead, the juxtaposition of text and photographs—and therefore the photo-survey itself—should be greater than the sum of its parts.
- Ethics and Politics of Representation: Ethics and the politics of representation are guiding principles for any anthropological work. We intend to consider if and how the media-maker understands power relationships and inequities in the production and dissemination of images. An ethically and representationally sophisticated approach needs to show knowledge of how images are likely to be read. Photographers should show that they have considered reflexivity, positionality, rapport, the building of trust, and consent as part of their methodology.
- Page-Layout: The Photo-Survey provides a unified series that foregrounds individual images. The Photo-essay employs montage techniques to create critical combinations of images and texts within the confines of the frame/page.