Ethnography & Photography: An Uneasy Relationship

From June 26-28, Sciences Po hosted the International Asian Studies Conference. For the occasion, researchers working in various countries around Asia, from Pakistan to China to Laos, shared images that they had taken while conducting their fieldwork.

One aim of the exhibition was to provide an opportunity for visitors to reflect on the images that the researchers had taken, as well as the stories behind them. The use of the camera in documenting different cultures and societies has always been met by ambivalence, and through this sort of exhibition, the fieldworkers hoped to remedy the paradox they face by encouraging engagement with their ‘visual notes’.

Watch the video with researcher Laurent Gayer, Sciences Po - CERI, and Estelle Miramond, PhD candidate, Université Paris Diderot, as they discuss their respective series of photographs, “Who Watches the Watchmen?” and “Gender at Work.”

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