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- Convenors:
-
Ping-Heng Chen
(Heidelberg University)
Donald Wood (Akita University)
- Location:
- 104
- Start time:
- 18 May, 2014 at
Time zone: Asia/Tokyo
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
This panel will focus on the use of still photography in anthropology, both in theory and practice. Topics will cover both the use of historical photographs as documents and the potential use of the camera in the field, past, present and in the future.
Long Abstract:
Photographic anthropology or ethnographic photography may be defined as the use of photographs for the recording and understanding of culture(s), both the use of the subjects and of the photographers. What makes a photograph ethnographic is not necessarily the intention of its production but how it is used to inform viewers ethnographically (Scherer 1995).
Picture-taking was revolutionized in the late 1890s with the invention of Kodak's "hand camera" designed to hold a preloaded roll of 100 exposures. Although the beginning of visual anthropology can be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century the box camera was smaller and easier to use in the field. Boas, Rivers, Malinowski and others anthropologists made ground-making use of photographs in the early decades of the 20th Century, but by the 1930s the professional use of camera stills was out of fashion despite Mead' and Bateson's brave effort in Bali.
When the field of visual anthropology in the United States eventually was professionalized, it evolved gradually from the 1950s into the 1970s. However, from the first attempt at creating an academic home for visual anthropology with the Film Study Center founded at Harvard in 1958 to the impact of Jean Rouch, visual anthropology has to a large extent been identified as ethnographic film-making and not still photography. This panel seeks to promote still photography as a field of visual anthropology by discussing its present status in its historical context, as well as outlining its future in a digitalized 21st Century.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Ping-Heng Chen (Heidelberg University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the Japanese photographer Yasu Kohei’s practice in the context of early photography in Guatemala. Through a discussion of the complex relations in which his studio photography was entangled, it helps to explore how archival photographs can be used for anthropological purposes.
Paper long abstract:
As the first Japanese migrant in Guatemala and one of the most important pioneer photographers in that country, Yasu Kohei's reputation rests preponderantly on the depiction of Catholic monuments and religious sculptures, as well as on the portraiture of the local clergy. Having acquired his photographic skills upon arrival in Central America, Yasu (1846-1917) opened his own business under the name of "Japanese Photography Studio." At the time when other foreign and native photographers in Guatemala were energized by the modern and progressive aspects of liberal reform, Yasu focused instead on ancient Catholic themes. Based on the archive of his work at the Fototeca CIRMA, this paper explores Yasu's staged photographs of religious motifs as documents that provide evidence of the aesthetic and social contexts of photography at this particular juncture of cultures and temporalities.
Influenced by Catholic symbolism and pictorial conventions, Yasu's compositional techniques bespeak a strong sense for arrangement and decoration. By looking at his practice of retouching photographs to include captions and attribute speech to depicted figures, connections to local traditions of painted pious images can be traced. Yasu's religious photography represents a peculiar genre that transverses the realms of the public, the religious, and the private as they converge before his camera eye. Through a discussion of the complex cultural influences and social relations in which his photographic practice was entangled, this paper explores the use of archival photographs for anthropological purposes.
Donald Wood (Akita University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the ethnographic use of photography by a farmer to document life in his home village in Akita Prefecture, northeastern Japan, in the 1930s. It considers the influence of his patron, Shibusawa Keizo, and implications for photographic anthropology today and in the future.
Paper long abstract:
Born the third son of a farmer in a tiny northeastern Japanese village, Yoshida Saburo (1905-1979) was an unlikely candidate for later membership in the intellectual circle of Shibusawa Keizo, grandson of Meiji-era industrialist Shibusawa Eiichi. But Yoshida found himself involved with Shibusawa's ethnological research association, the Attic Museum, after Shibusawa decided to publish a manuscript that Yoshida had written on his home village. Prior to this book's publication in 1935, Shibusawa descended upon Yoshida's village with a team of young Attic researchers armed with cameras. The photos taken on this trip became part of the Attic Museum's massive photograph collection, and many appeared in Yoshida's first book. Yoshida than received a camera from Shibusawa, and from that point photography became a central part of his ethnography—his mission: to document the rigors of subsistence-level production and the rich material culture of his community. Although he was neither a member of the Communist Party nor involved with the proletarian movement, Yoshida was critical of government policy and hoped that through meticulous recording of his life and that of his community—and also hard work, diligent study, and a frugal lifestyle—he might be able to help bring about change. His ethnographic writing and photography, therefore, had a political nature that, while subtle, elucidated social problems. This presentation will consider Yoshida's prewar ethnological photography in this light, attempting to resolve its inherently contradictory nature while untangling its goals and messages, with reference to the present and future of photographic anthropology.