Visual Anthropology

Catalog description

This course approaches photography and film as modes for representing and interpreting culture. The course examines the genre of ethnographic cinema and its relationship to wider discussions about documentary and nonfiction film. The course also considers the place of the photo essay in anthropological scholarship. Building on this dual foundation, students apply theories and methods from visual anthropology to produce a multimodal (visual and verbal) ethnographic essay with a clearly defined visual approach. Combining photography and ethnography, students generate primary-source images to anchor an original social analysis through careful and critical attention to the ethics and politics of images in anthropological research and representation.