Teaching Visual Anthropology. Notes from the Field

Abstract

When I joined the Granada Centre in 1991 I was concerned to explore the field of visual anthropology by means of an intellectually coherent approach that encompassed research, teaching and filmmaking practices. At the centre of this approach was an interest in the relationship between vision and knowledge in ethnographic enquiry. My recent book, 'The Ethnographer's Eye', was an attempt to establish a broader intellectual context for the examination of vision within anthropology. In this essay I use an ethnographer's eye to look at the set of teaching techniques through which this understanding was gained. The reflections I offer here arise from a desire to understand better the relationship between teaching practice and academic writing, visual anthropology and television documentary. A critical appraisal of the Granada Centre as a fieldwork site makes possible the re-imagining of anthropology as a visual project.