Short Abstract

In a polarised, visually saturated world, how do visual anthropologists work? This panel explores polarisation not as a barrier, but as a productive tension that reveals the conditions of representation and generates new forms of knowledge.

Long Abstract

Throughout its history, visual anthropology has served to generate, critically present, challenge, and reflect on its knowledge production. It is the place where meaning is visually (re)discussed, reflected on, and shown to have its frictions, engaging new modes of seeing and knowledge in time.

In a world shaped by polarising forces and visually saturated, visual anthropology faces renewed ethical and methodological challenges (Pink 2006 ; Gill 2021). Thus, in the context of globalisation, people become both seer and seen, and image a place where gazes meet. From an object of testimony, the visual thus becomes a place of negotiation of culturally connoted meanings, a space of encounter but also of clash between imaginaries (Lutz & Collins 1991). In the current context, these modes of seeing, sensing, knowing, allow for the exploration of new spaces within the visual language, which can harmonise, reshape, shape, and deconstruct meaning, permeating spheres that are not necessarily translated through the text.

We propose considering polarisation as a productive tension. When approached reflexively, such tension reveals the conditions under which representation itself becomes possible. What challenges do visual anthropologists encounter when conducting their research and/or interacting with ethnographic subjects? What value does visual language take on in an increasingly polarised world?

We welcome papers that reflect on the new challenges faced by visual approaches in anthropology and on how polarisation, challenges, and conflicts can be seen as possibilities for engaging in new spheres that generate new modes of knowledge production and visual representations.

Pink, Sarah. 2006. The Future of Visual Anthropology: Engaging the Senses. London: Routledge.

Gill, Harjant. 2021. “Decolonizing Visual Anthropology: Locating Transnational Diasporic Queers-of-Color Voices in Ethnographic Cinema.” American Anthropologist

Lutz, Catherine & Jane Collins.1991. “The Photograph as an Intersection of Gazes: The Example of National Geographic.” Visual Anthropology Review, 7(1): 134-149.

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