The look of those who were there: image and ethnography

Abstract

This text proposes a discussion about the use of images in ethnographic fieldwork. To do so, it was first necessary to conceptualize anthropology as a science, discussing the history of its scientific training and ethnographic fieldwork, emphasizing the use of photography as an inherent resource for data collection. Therefore, the focus was directed to the debate of photography in an ethnographic research in the interior of the Amazon in the early 1990s, developed in a Research Project called Environmental Control of Garimpagem on the Tapajós River. The report of this ethnographic research experience is relevant to the reflection of the image as an important element in the relationship between the researcher, the researched and the reader of the research. In this case, the image acts as a mechanism of approximation between the components of this triad (researcher, research and reader) in the experience lived in the research field. The reader who was not there sees the clipping made by those who were there. Likewise, the image allows for a relationship of trust and exchange between the researcher and the researched.