Visual research: A concise introduction to thinking visually

VISUAL RESEARCH

VISUAL RESEARCH

A Concise Introduction to

Thinking Visually

Jonathan S. Marion

Jerome W. Crowder

LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY

Bloomsbury Academic

An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

www.bloomsbury.com

First published 2013

© Jonathan S. Marion and Jerome W. Crowder, 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including

photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system,

without prior permission in writing from the publishers.

Jonathan S. Marion and Jerome W. Crowder have asserted their right under the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Authors of this work.

No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on

or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can

be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the authors.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: HB: 978-0-8578-5205-2

PB: 978-0-8578-5206-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

50 Bedford Square

London

WC1B 3DP

UK

175 Fifth Avenue

New York

NY 10010

USA

CONTENTS

List of Tables and Illustrations vii

Acknowledgements ix

Case Study Contributors xi

Introduction xiii

SECTION 1: IMAGE BASICS 1

1. The Ethics of Images 3

2. The Basics of Thinking Visually 13

3. Thinking of Images as Data 28

SECTION 2: MAKING IMAGES 39

4. Cameras in Social Science Research 41

5. Photography 52

6. Video (with Elizabeth Cartwright) 67

7. Multimedia 82

SECTION 3: USING IMAGES 95

8. Organization and Storage (with Michele Reilly) 97

9. Exploring Images (with Michele Reilly) 113

10. Using Images 127

Conclusion 137

vi

CONTENTS

Appendix I: Glossary 141

Appendix II: Online Resources 143

Notes 147

References 155

Index 163

LIST OF TABLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Tables

Table 6.1 Video Microphones 73

Table 8.1 Storage Media 110

Table 10.1 Resolution and Printing 128

Illustrations

Figure 0.1 Art and Athleticism in Action xvi

Figure 0.2 Family at the Edge of the City xvii

Figure 1.1 Rapport 5

Figure 1.2 Constructedness of Images 10

Figure 2.1 Self-Portrait 16

Figure 2.2 Girl Dancing 18

Figure 2.3 Woman in Home with Portraits 19

Figure 2.4 Framing 20

Figure 2.5 Composition and Angle/Perspective 21

Figure 2.6 Lighting (Ambient versus Flash) 22

Figure 2.7 The Camera in the Action 24

Figure 2.8 Previsioning 26

Figure 3.1 Fieldwork Sketch 30

Figure 3.2 Context, Content, and Detail 32

Figure 3.3 Comparison of Four Threat Gestures in Macaca sylvanus 35

Figure 4.1 Chapter Timeline 43

Figure 4.2 Kroeber Photographing Ishi 43

Figure 4.3 Dysprosodic Images? 49

Figure 5.1 Ch’alla in Juli, Perú 53

Figure 5.2 Photographic Intent 54

Figure 5.3 Apertures 57

Figure 5.4 Depth of Field 58

Figure 5.5 Daytime Flash Outdoors 62

Figure 5.6 Rule of Thirds 63

Figure 5.7 Irish Gardens 64

Figure 6.1 Stabilization and Sound 71

viii

LIST OF TABLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure 6.2 Microphones and Pick-up Patterns 73

Figure 6.3 Sound Matters 74

Figure 6.4 Nonverbal Signaling 75

Figure 6.5 Practice First 77

Figure 6.6 Planet Youth 79

Figure 7.1 Posters 84

Figure 7.2 StarCAVE 90

Figure 7.3 Multimedia Screen Grab 91

Figure 8.1 RAW→JPEG 99

Figure 8.2 1, 2, 3 100

Figure 8.3 Folders Within Folders 101

Figure 8.4 Organizational Integrity 103

Figure 8.5 Evolving Formats 109

Figure 9.1 Sample Metadata Matrix 114

Figure 9.2 “Daily Stuff” (Donald’s Medical Bills) 121

Figure 9.3 Organizational Levels 123

Figure 10.1 Screening Video 134

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There are many people who deserve thanks for their contributions and support in

crafting this book. Our colleagues attending the Society for Visual Anthropology’s

annual Visual Research Conference, and our students—both on campus and in our

workshops—have all contributed to our thinking about the issues at the heart of this

text. The idea for this specific book first came up in a conversation between Jonathan

Marion and Anna Wright (then an anthropology editor at Berg—now Bloomsbury)

at the 2010 American Anthropological Association meeting in New Orleans; and

we cannot thank her enough for her early enthusiasm and support for this project.

Because the ideas presented here are about visual research as it is broadly

understood, we are especially appreciative of our colleagues who contributed

glimpses into their own projects for the case studies in each chapter of this book:

John Bishop, Elizabeth Cartwright, Jenny Chio, Kate Hennessy, Karen Nakamura,

Sara Perry, Michele Reilly, Stephanie Takaragawa, Jennifer Wolowic, Terence Wright,

and Anne Zeller. Stephanie Takaragawa and David Marion read the initial draft of

this manuscript, and their early suggestions were invaluable in focusing our ongo￾ing revisions. Likewise, feedback on the penultimate draft of the manuscript from

Gavin Rose, Steve Moog, Terence Wright, and our anonymous reviewers all helped

highlight areas in need of greater stylistic and theoretical clarification.

Especially considering that this book is about visual research, we greatly ap￾preciate the aid of Joanna Cohan Scherer and the staff at the National Anthropo￾logical Archives, Ira Jacknis, Alicja Egbert, and Malcolm Collier, in identifying and

securing the rights to the historical images in Chapters 2–4 (Figures 2.1, 2.2, 2.3,

3.1, and 4.2), and to Thomas DeFanti in providing us with a tour of the Calit2

facilities at University of California San Diego in April 2012, and then helping us

secure the StarCAVE image in Chapter 7 through the timely assistance of Doug

Ramsey (Figure 7.2). Chapter 6 would not be what it is today without Elizabeth

Cartwright sharing her experiences using, making, and teaching about video re￾search, or without the critical feedback from Michael Brims. More than anyone

else, however, we are indebted to Michele Reilly, whose perspective as a digital

archivist were both instrumental and invaluable in crafting Chapters 8 and 9, in￾cluding the illustrative figures in these chapters.

We also want to thank two specific members of the Bloomsbury staff: Ian Buck

for his incomparable assistance negotiating the editing and layout process, and

x

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Louise Butler for her support bringing this project home. Our utmost gratitude also

goes to Alicia Krouse for her continual support and understanding throughout the

process of making this book a reality—if other authors could be so lucky. Finally, we

must thank all of our research participants and collaborators who have allowed us

into their lives, even—and especially—when we showed up with cameras in hand.

It is only through their generosity that our own projects and thinking about visual

research have and continue to develop.

CASE STUDY CONTRIBUTORS

John Bishop, Media Generation (United States)

• http://johnbishopexperience.com

Elizabeth Cartwright, Department of Anthropology, Idaho State University

(United States)

• http://www.isu.edu/anthro/cartwright.shtml

Jenny Chio, Department of Anthropology, Emory University (United States)

• https://sites.google.com/site/jennytchio

Kate Hennessy, School of Active Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University

(Canada)

• http://hennessy.iat.sfu.ca

Karen Nakamura, Department of Anthropology, Yale University (United States)

• http://www.photoethnography.com

Sara Perry, Department of Archaeology, University of York (England)

• http://saraperry.wordpress.com

Michele Reilly, Head of Digital Service, University of Houston Libraries

(United States)

• http://digital.lib.uh.edu

Stephanie Takaragawa, Department of Sociology, Chapman University

(United States)

• http://www.chapman.edu/our-faculty/stephanie-takaragawa

Jennifer Wolowic, Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia

(Canada)

• http://blogs.ubc.ca/sumaxsaffect

xii

CASE STUDY CONTRIBUTORS

Terence Wright, Art and Design Research Institute, University of Ulster (Northern

Ireland)

• http://www.ulster.ac.uk/staff/t.wright.html

Anne Zeller, Anthropology Department, University of Waterloo (Canada)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Zeller

INTRODUCTION

This introduction:

• Explains why this book was written

• Provides an overview of the structure and design features of this book

• Introduces the idea of thinking visually

Overview

While the need for a book like Visual Research: A Concise Introduction to Thinking

Visually has existed for the past two decades within the social sciences, the rapid

expansion of digital technologies has greatly increased this need. The capacity to

take photos and video on handheld devices, and the ability to then store, post, and

share such imagery online all offer tremendous opportunities for facilitating social

research. The seemingly ever-present nature and availability of images enabled by

digital technologies often masks the reality that they are all too often deployed with

little technological proficiency, and even less theoretical and ethical consideration.

Early uses of visual equipment were limited by their sheer size, cost, and need for

specialized technical knowledge; this also meant that careful attention, planning,

forethought, and judgment were involved in a way that is no longer required. Being

able to shoot hours of digital footage or thousands of digital images from a handheld

camera without changing film can be tremendously advantageous, but it also allows

for far less critical awareness or attention than imposed by the limited nature of

expensive media. This book bridges that gap by explaining how to take advantage

of modern tools while thinking critically about all stages of image creation and dis￾semination, and by providing essential guidance for students and scholars embark￾ing on almost any research project involving a visual dimension.

While almost all of the information we present has already appeared elsewhere,

this information is typically (1) spread across numerous sources, and (2) written

for other specialists, using concepts and language often inaccessible to newcom￾ers. The most important ideas are often the least accessible to those who need this

information the most. Unlike other texts, this book is written to familiarize the

reader—that’s you—with significant theoretical, methodological, ethical, and pro￾cedural considerations in a concise and highly accessible format. It is designed to

xiv

INTRODUCTION

be a one-stop guide for working with images that anyone interested in doing re￾search on or with visual media will find extremely helpful. We explain key issues

relating to how to use cameras in research (including both ethical and technical

considerations) organized into short, focused chapters. Visual Research: A Concise

Introduction to Thinking Visually, then, is a book for anyone wanting to learn how

imagery—whether photos, video, or multimedia—can enhance their work.

We begin with a discussion of the ethics of making and using images. This is

crucial to how researchers engage with the people around them and has impor￾tant consequences for how images are taken, understood, used, and distributed. We

emphasize that thinking about the ramifications of images before engaging in visual

research is fundamental to capturing the most useful images—both literally and

figuratively. Building on such considerations, the rest of this text is designed to help

you think about and work with your own visual data, including creating, organizing,

storing, and sharing it. Based on our experiences working with, producing, evaluat￾ing, and teaching about visual data,1

we use examples from various professionals—

highlighting the do’s and do nots along with the why’s and how’s—to help you

become a competent visual researcher and gain the understanding, experience, and

proficiency to successfully integrate visuals into your own research. This book is not

about teaching you how to do the visual research we have done, but rather uses our

research to help you understand and accomplish the types of visual research that are

best suited to your own work.

Focusing on broad ideas and the most common media (i.e., photography, video,

and multimedia), we provide an overview and model that can be used for more

specific and specialized domains (e.g., graphs, architecture, murals, paintings, etc.)

without attempting to be all things to all people. This book is designed to provide

you with significant theoretical, methodological, ethical, and procedural consider￾ations in a concise, focused, and highly accessible format. We address basic concepts

in order to make this text useful to students and readers from diverse personal,

professional, and academic backgrounds. Our goal is to provide a broadly applicable

way of thinking about and doing visual research rather than describing the numer￾ous subtypes of such work. Ultimately then, you can expect this small book to cre￾ate big changes in how you approach, think about, and implement visual methods

in all of your fieldwork.

Design Features and Overall Structure

Based on our experiences working with, producing, evaluating, and teaching about

visual data—and especially the Photography for the Field workshops we have

taught at the American Anthropological Association (AAA) national meetings—

we have designed and written this book to be a one-stop guide for working with