My Journey into Visual Anthropology
creative
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compassionate
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creative 〰️ compassionate 〰️
I’ve always felt at home with my camera strap around my neck. That is why when it came to the big decision of choosing what I wanted to study in college, I chose visual communications at the University of South Carolina. Why not photography at a fine arts school? You might ask. Well, I chose visual communications because I wanted to learn and teach through my photos, rather than use them for abstract art, or focus on modes of digital technology. So, I began my journey as a “vis comm” major in UofSC’s School for Journalism and Mass Communications to communicate what I saw. Pretty quickly, my instincts told me that something wasn’t quite right. My courses focused to prepare me for art rooted in journalism and stressed practices like capturing stories quickly and as an unbiased observer. Don’t get me wrong… these are crucial skills in photojournalism. But, I started to ask myself if a photojournalist is what I really wanted to be.
Meanwhile, a course requirement landed me in an anthropology course, where I discovered “the study of human societies and cultures and their development”. My ‘Understanding Other Cultures’ class was like a breath of fresh air on my packed Tuesdays and Thursdays. Seeing the diversity of human experience and beauty in the different ways we understand the world mesmerized me. I knew that I had to learn more. One morning, while inhaling my daily bagel from Einstein Bros and reading my anthropology textbook, a term in bold caught my eye: visual anthropology. Visual anthropology, the textbook described, is a subfield of social anthropology that focuses on ethnographic photography, film, and new media to study historical societies. Now this was the right path for me. I immediately went to my TA, who gave me the unfortunate news that my university did not offer visual anthropology as a major or minor.
I was disheartened, but determined. While searching for ways to pursue visual anthropology, I came across my school’s Honors College BARSC program, which let undergraduate students craft their own degree, given that their academic interests were multidisciplinary and beyond existing degree paths offered at the university. My first step was to apply to the Honors College. After my acceptance, I was ready to apply for a BARSC degree. I just had to come up with a title, write a statement of purpose to be reviewed by the dean, and collect a committee of university faculty that would be willing to advise me along the way. A little less than two years, many essay drafts, and Zoom meetings later, I had declared my new major: Religious Studies through Photo-Visual Anthropology. My multidisciplinary degree pulled from three major areas of study: religious studies, anthropology, and visual communications. I was set on my path towards visual anthropology.
visual anthropology
the study of humanity through & by visual means
Now, I have been lucky enough to enroll in incredibly niche courses to prepare me for this career path. Courses like Physics of the Visual Arts, Russian Folklore & Fairytales, Lighting for Studio and Location Photography and Comparing Cultures Through Film have ignited my passion for learning about people and practicing photographic storytelling. I have taken on passion projects such as “Documenting Racial Justice Leaders of Columbia” and “Conceptualizing and Capturing Diverse Definitions of Energy” to learn about and artistically capture my topics of interest. The “Projects” tab of my website will display a few of these.
My journey as a visual anthropologist is ever-evolving and unfolding - just as I am. Over many years of hard work, I have been reminded to practice humility while learning from my subjects. I have seen the beauty in vulnerability that the people who I study show. I have been challenged to capture the tragedies of human experience, but also the universal love that we all share. My goal now is to practice creative and compassionate communication through visual anthropology, to get a little closer to that best version of myself that I am working towards, alongside the rest of the world.
