Christian Suhr

What does the use of cameras entail for the production of cultural critique in anthropology?

Visual anthropological analysis and cultural critique starts at the very moment a camera is brought into the field or existing visual images are engaged. The framing, distances, and interactions between researchers, cameras, and filmed subjects already inherently comprise analytical decisions. It is these ethnographic qualities inherent in audiovisual and photographic imagery that make it of particular value to a participatory anthropological enterprise that seeks to resist analytic closure and seeks instead to establish analysis as a continued, iterative movement of transcultural dialogue and critique.