GEOGRAPHY COFFEE HOUR FRI. 30 SEPTEMBER 2011:
JSA Rm (Blegen 445), Coffee & Cookies 3:15 pm, Talk 3:30 pm
[Associate Professor in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication,
University of Minnesota]
What role can visual representations, and photography in particular,
play in research in the social sciences and humanities? Photography
has been used as an adjunct to research since its invention, and the
romantic nineteenth century view that the medium is a transparent
window on the world persists, even in the age of Photoshop. My aim is
not to suggest that the inherent manipulability of the medium makes it
suspect. What I will argue is that like any other communicative
medium, photography is governed by cultural codes and conventions, and
that any image a photographer produces is a statement, not a neutral
transcription of the world in front of the lens. What does that mean
with respect to the use of photography as a mode of investigation and
as a medium for communicating ideas? My talk will respond to this
question using two photographic projects as examples: On the Nest and
In the Kitchen. Each explores the relationships among domestic space,
social behavior and the transmission of culture from one generation to
the next. And each provides a starting point for discussion of how
photographic representation can best function as a vehicle for
discovery and communication.
