Visual Anthropology: II. Still Photography

Visual Anthropology: II. Still Photography: "II. Still Photography



'A photograph is at once a direct representation of reality and the result of an utterly subjective choice.'
- David Sapir, On Fixing Ethnographic Shadows
Still photography was used in ethnology for various purposes before ethnography was a standard practice in anthropology. Early pioneers in photography included Maxime Du Camp, who, working under commission from the French Government in 1852 published Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie, a series of calotypes of the Middle East dubbed 'the first photographically illustrated travel book' (Banta 1986: 39). "