Etnografik Bir Veri Olarak Fotoğraf: Temsil, Düşünümsellik ve Gerçekçilik

Year 2018, Issue: 36, 87 - 102, 28.12.2018

Koray Değirmenci

https://doi.org/10.1501/antro_0000000360

Abstract

Fotoğrafın gerçeklik
olarak nitelendirilen olgu ile kendine özgü ve doğrudan bir bağ kurduğu
varsayımı, tüm eleştirilere rağmen kültürel olarak kökleşmiş bir inancı ifade
etmektedir. Dolayısıyla fotoğraf geçmişte olduğu gibi bugün de farklı alanlarda
bir kanıt ve veri aracı olarak kullanıldığı gibi sosyoloji ve antropoloji
alanında da etnografik veri olarak kullanılan bir medyumdur. Fotoğrafa özgü
gerçekçiliğe getirilen eleştiriler ve etnografi kavramının gerçeklik ile
ilişkisine yönelik tartışmalar hem bir veri olarak fotoğrafın hem de araştırma
pratiğinin gerçeklikle ve temsil edilen şeylerle ilişkisini sorgulamaktadırlar.
Bu eleştirilerin somutlaştırımı olarak geç modernist ve postmodern eleştiriler
sosyal bilimlerde düşünümsel bir paradigmanın oluşmasına neden olmuşlardır. Bu
çalışma genelde postmodern etnografi olarak adlandırılacak yaklaşımdan gelen eleştiriler,
özelde de Bruno Latour’un düşünümsellik kavramına getirdiği açılımlar ışığında
fotoğrafın etnografik çalışmalarda nasıl kullanılabileceği üzerinde düşünmekte
ve bu çerçevede operasyonel olabilecek farklı yaklaşımları eleştirel olarak
incelemektedir.  

Keywords

Fotoğraf, Antropoloji, Etnografi, Düşünümsellik, Gerçekçilik

Photography as Ethnographic Data: Representation, Reflexivity and Realism

Abstract

The assumption that the photograph has a specific and direct connection with what is described as reality implies a culturally rooted belief in spite of all criticism. Thus, as in the past, photographs are still used as a means of evidence and data in different fields, and are also used as ethnographic data in sociology and anthropology. The criticisms brought to the photographic realism and the debates on the relation between reality and ethnography both question the relation between the photography as data and the practice of research on the one hand and the reality and the things represented on the other. Late modernist and postmodern criticism as an embodiment of these criticisms has led to the formation of a paradigm of reflexivity in social sciences. In the light of the criticisms of what is usually called postmodern ethnography, and especially Bruno Latour’s expansions on the concept of reflexivity, this study dwells on the issue of how photography can be used in ethnographic studies and critically examines different approaches that may be operational in this framework.

Keywords

Photogpraphy, Anthropology, Ethnography, Reflexivity, Realism

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