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OCR
74 Zbigniew Libera, Magdalena Sztandara see the reality. Here, the photographs do not represent reality—they are reality (see for examples: August Sander, FSA, Family of Man, or Zofia Rydet). In the next type of practice, that is looking “on”, the photo is a medium of communication and it is synonymous with the interpretation. It leads to an understanding of the image and its meaning. The third type concerns photographs as reflections of the sociocultural contexts in which they were taken. However the photographs do not reflect here the materiality of the world but rather rules and cultural patterns; they reconstruct perceptions of reality by the people who have taken them. Hence, the question is: what can we see looking “through”, “on”, and “behind” the album of ethnographers from the field? Looking “through” the photographs, one probably sees the same details that Aaron Schuman saw while preparing the exhibition—ethnographers at work. Dressed in modern clothing, equipped with notebooks, pencils, cameras, microphones, and recording equipment, they are driving around in trucks, observing and describing the artefacts of material culture. Researchers seem to follow the example of Malinowski: they talk with or, rather, interview the villagers standing in front of their houses, sitting on the stairs or a bench; they look, listen, write, draw, take photos, and even “fraternize” with the “natives”. What is most important, as Schuman emphasises, is their devotion to and sacrifice for work: ‘They are focusing all of their attention on the cultural customs, traditions, materials, origins, and so on that are receding into history; the traditional costumes, the horse-drawn carriages, the ancient, hand-crafted tools, technologies and art, and so on—they are preserving what may potentially be lost as contemporary modernity (from where they come) encroaches on these regions, cultures, and communities. It may be argued that the ethnographers make commemorative photos during the expeditions by capturing their work in the field. However, one cannot consider these specific photographs without their functions and their cultural and institutional contexts. What then can one see by looking “on” and “behind” this photographic album of “being there”? First of all, these photographs become representations of narrative sequences of ethnographers about themselves, kept according to romantic and realistic conventions. These conventions were strongly associated with a program of ethnography at that time (sentiment, authenticity, salvage). As can be seen in accounts from those years, some of the participants and organizers strongly and deeply believed in these ideas. In the face of new events and new reality, the distance between hitherto ignorant peasant and the University student have become blurred. ...Finally, the
