 Let us continue our discussion on reflexivity in visual ethnography. In our last section, we said that to be reflexive in visual ethnography means to be aware of the meanings that our images convey, to be aware of the meaning associated with our chosen visual medium and to be conscious of our role in the context. We have discussed the first one. Now we come to the second, which is about the meanings associated with our chosen medium. Is a representation a true copy of what it depicts? Or is it an improved, idealized version? Is an embellished image a false image? Or is it an artistic presentation of something that is otherwise ordinary? Most forms of visual art and representation have always held this tension between the real and the ideal or abstract. And perhaps this tension is most pronounced in the case of photography. The MacDougall's film, Photovalas, explores this. One of the participants in the film is a wedding photographer who is trying to take pictures of a young woman that will be sent to prospective grooms by her family. As you are seeing this picture here, this is the picture of my sister, Shushila M. Das. And it had been taken by me. And after taking this picture, we have sent this picture to the boy's family. So after they have seen this picture, so she has been selected with this picture. And here now you are seeing the picture of the same girl, which is my sister Shushila. Now she calls Shushila Saini with her husband, Mr. Vijay Saini. And this is the picture after their marriage. And here is the picture of a doctor. It is sent to this family as you are seeing two girls in this picture. So they have got this picture from this doctor's side and now they have to send one picture from the girl's side. So I got an appointment from this family now for this engagement picture. So probably next week I am going to take the picture of this girl, this one. And this is the sister of this girl, the second one. So actually they are both want to get married now. Yes, smile. No, no, I am sitting. Okay. You come here so that we get to know about the TV. Okay. Then we don't have to wait for the TV, right? No, no, this is not what I meant. Yes, this is what I meant. Is it? That is why I kept it for you earlier. Okay. Okay. Have you lost your watch? Yes. The watch? No, I have lost it. It's okay. What's the difference? Okay. As you see that it used to be like that in the past time when the people used to prefer the studio photographs which is taken by the good lights and different sort of touching on it. But that would be all right just for seeing if you are seeing just the picture only. But in the real way when you will see the person who is on the photograph so then you will come to know the real story what's in it. I have seen one black and white picture with one girl which she got from the boys' family and he was looking very nice in that picture with just a smart hand. But when he came in front of that girl so it was very embracing for that girl even she could not talk to him. She wasn't feeling very nice to talk to him and she just came from one door and she ran from another door because the picture was seeing something else in that picture but the person was not like that. We see in the sequence and the photographer says it quite well that a photograph is expected to show a more desirable version of reality but if it departs too much from the real it fails its purpose. There is a careful balance or rather a tension between how real and how idealized a photograph should be. Speaking of this tension inherent in photography through the work of the wedding photographer David McDougal has said Even though he tries to show the women their best amidst signs of their affluence and sophistication he is careful not to idealize them too much because he knows that the couple will probably meet then it will be discovered what they really look like. If he idealizes too much the photographs will fail as evidence. This tension between the constructed nature of a photograph and the reality it presents is a recurring theme in the film. In another sequence a group of photography enthusiasts discuss this tension in their own work. They are not under obligation to present an idealized reality like the wedding photographer yet the same tension between the ideal and the real exist for them when it comes to representing reality or beauty. More tea? One more? Three. How about you? I got less. But you got good. But I got two, three pictures. Good ones. You take up landscape. Everyone cannot afford the painting. If you ask 2,000 rupees for one painting a common man on the street cannot afford the painting. He will go in for a photograph only. The same photograph I will make for 500 rupees. 400 rupees. It depends on me. Tom Dick and Harry can be a photographer. A photographer who wants to become a real artist then it has to be 1 in 1000. It is not that easy just to taking because technique has improved a lot instrumentation is very good. Nothing is out of focus and everything is there. You can eliminate, do whatever you like. You can have some techniques developed which can change a photograph but not completely out of place. It requires a lot of experimentation. So I don't agree. You go to any salon. I bet there is one or two which looks like what they have taken but all has been rendered in the dark room or at the time of printing or copied, recopied, enlarged, played in the dark room and all those things are done. You can have a photograph much more beautiful than the reality. Photo is always beautiful than the original scene because you know the reason? You have selected a good spot whereas when you go a person may see that spot he sees it as a whole and then... But there are certain limits which are not acceptable in photography while they are very much acceptable in painting. So if you want to have a difference of the two then really that would make the difference. Yesterday I showed a one slide to my colleagues I took six slides to copy it to make one So I don't believe it, neither I never believe that photography is a normal presentation of the truth but I think as long as it is real the beauty should extend up to the realism not beyond that. Through a discussion of this tension the photographers emphasize that a photograph is not simply captured but is made. It is constructed. For many years and across cultures this is what visual arts and photography have done. Represent people as they want to be seen as they want to be remembered by others. You can see an example of this in the ethnographic film Future Remembrance by Tobias Wendel and Nancy Duplassie set in Ghana in the 1990s. The film explores various forms through which people are visually represented in Ghanaian culture. Photographs, painted portraits and funeral statues. In each of these people ask the artist to depict them as they are and as they aspire to be. The reality that an image constructs is made up of both these aspects. Its constructed nature reminds us that an image like all forms of representation is subjective. It usually presents the perspective of the maker. Reflecting on this subjectivity can reveal our ways of seeing and those of our participants. This is the point that Christopher Pini makes as he recounts an incident from the early part of his career as an anthropologist. In the early years of his field work in India Pini took a photograph of his neighbor the kind of ethnographic image that he wanted to produce. Candid, revealing, expressive of the people I was living among. The photograph was half length and showed his participants standing in the fields in the evening hours. His participant however did not like the picture at all. Pini says that he complained about the shadow and darkness cast over his face and the absence of the lower half of his body. The photograph that he wanted instead required preparation. Clothes to be changed, hair to be brushed and oil and in the case of uppercast women the application of talcum powder to lighten the skin. And it had to be framed in a particular way. It had to be full length and symmetrical with expressionless faces and body poses. In short, the photograph that his participant wanted was a typical studio photograph to Pini this kind of picture was the antithesis of an ethnographic image. According to him an ethnographic image should show the participants in their natural context engaging in activities that form their daily lives. How could a poor studio style photograph be ethnographic? The photograph that Pini first took and the one that his participant wanted were defined by the difference in their cultures and ways of seeing. Pini's idea was influenced by the realist documentary style that ethnographers value. The participants ideas were based on the conventions of studio photography familiar in his culture. These two different photographs represent the subjectivities of the researcher and the participant. An important part of being reflexive is to be aware of these subjectivities our own and that of our participants. We must attempt to create ethnographies that are an outcome of the interaction between the subjectivities of the researcher and the participant. In other terms, our ethnographies must be intersubjective in nature. What does this mean in terms of visual ethnography? Let us return to Pini to understand that. The photograph that he finally took was as per the directions of his participant. It matched the conventions of studio photography but it was also a record of the researcher's engagement with his participant. Thus, the image represented the interaction between two different ways of seeing. It was a record created through the coming together of two subjectivities, Pini's and his participants and it represented the interaction of two visual cultures, modern anthropology and Indian studio photography. By admitting such intersubjectivity into his work, Pini learned a little more about his participant and the notions of self-representation in his culture. He also learned something about his own practice and the ways of seeing that defined his discipline. Pini's experience brings home one more point with regards to reflexivity. To be reflexive means to be aware of our role and location in the context and the expectations of our participants. We may see ourselves as researchers in the world of the other but how are we perceived by the other? What are their expectations from us? What roles have they assigned to us? Recall our discussion on access and the role of the ethnographer. Sometimes, even when our role as professional researcher is overt, we are assigned another role by our participant community. They could assign us the role of documenters of their lives and worlds, apprentices and learners, fellow travelers and even friends and confidants. They are likely to have certain expectations of us as per the roles assigned and these extend to the records that we make of their world. They may want these records to portray a particular aspect of their lives or to serve a function. Sarah Pink's participants, for instance, wanted her to take pictures which they could keep as personal records and share with family and friends. Rani Ben and Meghi Ben wanted a record of their personal narratives that would reach a larger audience. The awareness of these expectations and how our records and representations fulfill them is important. It helps us answer some of the questions that we begin our research with. What is the objective served by the research? And how does our research impact our participants and their community? And so it helps to remain true to the objectives we had started out with and it helps us understand a little more how our participants perceive certain forms of visual representation. In the examples that we have shared in this section, researchers explore how their visual medium and the representations they create were perceived by their participants. In the process, they became aware of their own ways of seeing. This led them to reflect on the media they use, whether it is photography, film or animation. They learned about the meanings associated with their chosen medium and they discovered that participants have a say in how they want to be represented. That participants often assert their agency by defining the terms of representation. So to be respectful of how the other wants to be represented is an important part of the ethnographer's responsibility. To summarize, to be reflexive means to be aware of our intentionality in making an image. It means to be conscious of subjective ways of seeing and to attempt intersubjectivity in our representations. And it means to be conscious of the implications of our representations on the lives of our participants. This kind of reflexivity is essential if we are to move from using images as illustrations or as substitutes for words and if we want our research to be truly collaborative and participatory. For those of you who want to further explore what an image or a visual representation means we have an exercise. We would like you to watch the film Future Remembrance by Tobias Wendel and Nancy Duplessie. Based on your understanding of the film answer a few questions on the meanings associated with photography and memory in Ghanian culture.