Directions and Diversions
in Visual Anthropology            
  1. Introduction
  2. Objects of Affect
  3. The Burden of Representation
  4. Uncertain Evidence
  5. Digital Media Infrastructure

  6. Collaboration
  7. Sovereign Vision(s)
  8. Opacity and Refusal
  9. Alter-Futurisms
  10. Visual Anthropology beyond the Visual

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CC BY-NC-SA 2024 Isaac Marrero Guillamón

4. Uncertain Evidence


How do images become plausible forms of evidence? What kinds of actors and devices are involved in the process? What is the relationship between evidence, technology, expertise and the state? This session unpacks the tension between the expectations of objectivity placed upon certain lens-based images, their oppressive histories, and new forms of mistrust.

Required reading:
  • Chinoy, Sahil. 2019. “The Racist History Behind Facial Recognition.” The New York Times, July 10, 2019, sec. Sunday Review. https://nyti.ms/2YM3Cc5.
  • Strassler, Karen. 2020. “The Scandal of Exposure.” In Demanding Images. Durham: Duke University Press Books.

Part 1/2 (16’): the politics of truth; image-events and the evidentiary mode. 



Part 2/2 (24’): the construction of facts; the hard work of assembling counter-evidence.



Activity:
Explore some of Forensic Architecture’s ‘investigations’ and ‘publications’, available here: https://forensic-architecture.org/

Suggested films:
de Sousa Dias, Susana. 2009. 48. Portugal, 93 min. 
Farocki, Harun. 2007. Respite. Germany, 40 min. Link.
Farocki, Harun and Andrei Ujica. 1992. Videograms of a Revolution. Germany, 107 min.
Ford, Yance. 2017. Strong Island. US, 107 min. 
Panh, Rithy. 2003. S21: The Khmer Rouge Death Machine. France, 101 min. Link.
Lanzmann, Claude. 1985. Shoah. France, 613 min.

Further reading:
  • Azoulay, Ariella. 2008. The Civil Contract of Photography. New York: Zone Books.
  • de Sousa Dias, Susana. 2015. “(In)visible Evidence: The Representability of Torture.” In A Companion to Contemporary Documentary Film, edited by Alexandra Juhasz and Alisa Lebow, 482–505. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Edwards, Elizabeth. 2014. “Photographic Uncertainties: Between Evidence and Reassurance.” History and Anthropology 25 (2): 171–88.
  • Feldman, Allen. 1994. “On Cultural Anesthesia: From Desert Storm to Rodney King.” American Ethnologist 21 (2): 404–18.
  • Gaines, Jane, and Michael Renov, eds. 1999. Collecting Visible Evidence. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  • Guerin, Frances, and Roger Hallas. 2007. “Introduction.” In The Image and the Witness: Trauma, Memory and Visual Culture, edited by Frances Guerin and Roger Hallas, 1–20. London: Wallflower Press.
  • Pinney, Christopher. 2015. “Civil Contract of Photography in India.” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 35 (1): 21–34. https://doi.org/10.1215/1089201X-2876068.
  • Steyerl, Hito. 2003. “Documentarism as Politics of Truth.” Transversal, no. 10. https://transversal.at/transversal/1003/steyerl/en?hl=documentarism 
  • Steyerl, Hito. 2003. “Politics of Truth: Documentarism in the Art Field.” Springerin, no. 3. https://www.springerin.at/en/2003/3/politik-der-wahrheit/.
  •  Weinberg, Marina, Marcelo González Gálvez, and Cristóbal Bonelli. 2020. “Políticas de la evidencia: entre posverdad, objetividad y etnografía.” Antípoda. Revista de Antropología y Arqueología (41): 3-27. https://doi.org/10.7440/antipoda41.2020.01.  
  • Winston, Brian. 1998. “‘The Camera Never Lies’: The Partiality of Photographic Evidence.” In Image-Based Research: A Sourcebook for Qualitative Researchers, edited by Jon Prosser, 53–60. London; Bristol, PA: Falmer Press.