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Doing Visual Ethnography
Following the success of the First Edition , this fully revised and updated Second Edition of Doing Visual Ethnography explores the use and potential of photography, video, and hypermedia in ethnographic and social research. It offers a reflexive approach to theoretical, methodological, practical, and ethical issues of using these media now that they are increasingly being incorporated into field research. Author Sarah Pink adopts the viewpoint that visual research methods should be rooted in a critical understanding of local and academic visual cultures, the visual media, and technologies being used and the ethical issues they raise.
240 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2001
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About the author
Sarah Pink
55 books16 followersSarah Pink is Professor in the School of Media and Communications at RMIT.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 15, 2011
Pink's book is the second one I've read on the topic of visual ethnography. All I can say is that I wish I had known of this methodology when I was doing cultural research in East Africa.
The basic idea of visual ethnography rises from our ability as humans to look at a picture and be filled with all kinds of thoughts, emotions, and ideas. The saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words" really is true.
In studying culture, a variety of people can look at the same photo and see a multi-faceted reality in the same picture. This is because we all have our own biases, and we interpret data using our own particular "lens". We develop this lens over time, through life experiences.
Pink addresses the idea of "reflexivity" when analyzing how a researcher's biases influence his/her own research. The researcher's own cultural perspective comes into play in the selection of photos, the interpretation of the photos, and the presentation of the photos. Truly, we all have a cultural bias--a starting point--that ultimately influences the way we perceive and communicate meaning. Because of this, doing good cultural study requires that we make every effort to neutralize our own biases. Not that this can ever be accomplished, but certainly the practice of visual ethnography allows for broader input into the research method and results--which is definitely a step in the right direction.
For anyone doing ethnography this book is certainly a must-read.
The basic idea of visual ethnography rises from our ability as humans to look at a picture and be filled with all kinds of thoughts, emotions, and ideas. The saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words" really is true.
In studying culture, a variety of people can look at the same photo and see a multi-faceted reality in the same picture. This is because we all have our own biases, and we interpret data using our own particular "lens". We develop this lens over time, through life experiences.
Pink addresses the idea of "reflexivity" when analyzing how a researcher's biases influence his/her own research. The researcher's own cultural perspective comes into play in the selection of photos, the interpretation of the photos, and the presentation of the photos. Truly, we all have a cultural bias--a starting point--that ultimately influences the way we perceive and communicate meaning. Because of this, doing good cultural study requires that we make every effort to neutralize our own biases. Not that this can ever be accomplished, but certainly the practice of visual ethnography allows for broader input into the research method and results--which is definitely a step in the right direction.
For anyone doing ethnography this book is certainly a must-read.
October 11, 2011
Honestly, this is the first ever book I have read on the importance and relevance of visual ethnography as a valid research method. In essence Pink takes us through the process of using visual images - photos, video, multimedia - as a means to understand a context from a different perspective than only using the written language.
Of particular interest, was the practice of 'reflexivity.' This looks at the photo or image from the perspective of the critic or the centrality of the researcher - why the researcher chose the photo, what is the researcher's relationship to the photo, how did the researcher's cultural context influence the positioning of the image, how it was presented, and how it was analysed.
Pink also looks at content and context, and in that same space, the influence of multivocality and multimedia i.e. how images, sounds, colours, text, video, presented together but in different ways, influence how we understand and interpret what was presented.
Overall, this book is helpful in understanding visual ethnography, as Pink helps readers understand the research process from its design, to its planning, execution, and analysis and presentation.
Of particular interest, was the practice of 'reflexivity.' This looks at the photo or image from the perspective of the critic or the centrality of the researcher - why the researcher chose the photo, what is the researcher's relationship to the photo, how did the researcher's cultural context influence the positioning of the image, how it was presented, and how it was analysed.
Pink also looks at content and context, and in that same space, the influence of multivocality and multimedia i.e. how images, sounds, colours, text, video, presented together but in different ways, influence how we understand and interpret what was presented.
Overall, this book is helpful in understanding visual ethnography, as Pink helps readers understand the research process from its design, to its planning, execution, and analysis and presentation.
December 1, 2019
I mean it's not that it's bad it's just too obvious? I honestly feel like visual ethnography/-anthropology is too small and narrow to be its own thing. Or at least it deserves way better than these books that 90% consist of "omg you can take pictures!" If you wanna learn to take pictures go read abt that. Same with filming. When you gonna analyse it and/or your own role and limitations, materials on qualitative data and just regular anthropology and whatnot work so much better and provide more extensive and deep look into it all. If you ever watched a YouTube video analysing a film or a game or whatever, you already know more than what's in these books. If you ever tried to take pictures or especially draw, you already know more... so Idk for whom this course is, maybe for way older people in academia... but yeah I'm very confused how this is considered to be a book with any sort of new information for anybody..
November 21, 2020
Interesantes las críticas de Sarah Pink a la hegemonía del texto escrito en la Academia y a la etnografía que pretende ser “realista”, “objetivamente realista”. Toda etnografía es una narración fragmentaria, una ficción construida. Sin embargo, el libro ha quedado algo desfasado en cuanto a métodos etnográficos audiovisuales. La Antropología Visual en 15 años ha tenido una trayectoria híper dinámica.
También interesantes las nociones de Pink respecto reflexividad y contextualización de la etnografía.
También interesantes las nociones de Pink respecto reflexividad y contextualización de la etnografía.
March 17, 2018
It's a bit dated but I found it still relevant. It's not a 'how to' in a sense that you will not find a list of things to do to conduct visual ethnography. It provides the discourse and the context in which this method is useful. The book build from Sarah Pink experience and research (plus some others).
What I like: it gives a strong argumentation on when and where visual ethnography is appropriate but also the limitation of this kind of method.
What I like: it gives a strong argumentation on when and where visual ethnography is appropriate but also the limitation of this kind of method.
April 2, 2022
Buku ini seperti tutorial dibalut dengan bahasa ilmiah yang mudah dipahami dengan kekhasan pengambilan sumber data digital dan memandu konsistensi visual dalam representasinya. Cocok dibaca untuk para etnografer digital dan visual, dan UX Researcher yang mau tampil beda dalam penyajian data, terutama kualitatif.
November 17, 2022
excellent resource for conducting visual ethnogrphay
September 7, 2011
If you know any thing about media studies or ethnographic research, this book is a boring review.
September 16, 2014
This book opened a whole new world to me. It provides readers with a new way of looking at communication and details the importance of allowing the voice of your subject to be heard.
May 27, 2016
Very helpful and challenging, but a tad repetitive. I felt like the author spent more time qualifying what she wasn't going to talk about than actually talking about what she intended to talk about.
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September 29, 2017Hyvä rautalankaohjeistus visuaalisen etnografian tekemiseen, vaikka kirjassa vielä pohdiskellaan tuleekohan DVD korvaamaan CD ROMin tai internet vaikka molemmat.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews