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Ethnographers’ Self-Depiction in the Photographs from the Field. Post-War Ethnology in Poland common concern about building a new life became united in one thought of informant and questioner, participant and observer of contemporary transformations (Kutrzeba-Pojnarowa 1955: 227). It can be assumed that the lessening of distance between the informant and the researcher should be visible in the photographs from the field, especially in those depicting the moments of the ethnographer’s encounter and conversation with the residents of the “world investigated”. Supposedly, the physical contact and con. cc » . > versation was a proof of “a sense of closeness”. Moreover, according to Burchard’s memoires, even the power relations have been balanced and the authority shifted: The real understanding of the process of change in traditional culture comes only through the fieldwork. Only then, the teachers become peasants themselves (Burchard 1964: 22). However, the doubt remains. Group photographs, unnatural poses during conversations, distinctive clothes, and observation methods form a specific and particular photo album. Ihe major assumption could be, despite the maintenances of the convention, that the presentations are slightly separated from the true reality — that nonphotographic one. Certainly one needs to agree that those photographs might evidence a somewhat colonial approach to Others. The balance of power and position in the pictures highlights the strong contrast between villagers and ethnographers. The moment of encounter with the Other has always its course, consequences, and interpretation (cf. Rabinow 1977). Closer analysis reveals that researchers, especially young ones, are looking at villagers (as human examples) at work with the same laboratory curiosity as they are looking at some unique material objects. Human as subject becomes the object of study similar to an antique chest or an old traditional tool. Looking at the photos from the fieldwork brings to mind the idea of tourist gaze (Urry 2002). Additionally, ethnographers resemble “detectives”, searching for and “hunting” for authenticity and exoticism. It could be a result of the approaches that promotes material culture. Thereby the history of each individual’s life was valuable when it was told only through the narration of the objects. What is more, the conversation with “experts of objects” in the field was led according to a preexisting questionnaire, which did not allow the researchers to hear any other stories than those the objects related. Consequently the interviews (not conversations) aimed to “obtain” from the informants as much information as possible regarding a specified object, its history and usage. The fieldwork resembled rather a scenario in which uninvited and intrusive incomers harassed local people with questions such as, What is this object? How it was called? And the most important question, How old is it? One can only suspect that sometimes it was necessary to use some violence—in a sym75
