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Cover statement

Chapter

Publications

Complete Citation

  • Scherer, Joanna Cohan. 2017. "Cover statement." In From site to sight: anthropology, photography, and the power of imagery. 30th anniversary ed. Banta, Melissa, Hinsley, Curtis M., O'Donnell, Joan Kathryn, and Jacknis, Ira, editors. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum Press, Harvard University.

Overview

Abstract

  • From Site to Sight, Thirtieth Anniversary Edition is a facsimile reprint with expanded content of one of the first publications devoted to the long and creative intersection of anthropology and photography. In the catalogue of a groundbreaking 1986 exhibition the authors focus on materials from the vast holdings of the Photographic Archives at Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, from daguerreotypes to satellite images. The original text is a wide-ranging investigation into how anthropologists have used the camera as a recording, analytic, and aesthetic medium, and it explores the broader implications of the uses--and misuses--of visual imagery within the human sciences. Ira Jacknis's comprehensive review of this foundational text in the field of visual anthropology traces the volume's influence on subsequent literature and developments in the field. An important contribution to the literature on the relationship between still photography and the discipline of anthropology, Jacknis's in-depth introductory essay serves to update and reintroduce Banta and Hinsley's work to a new generation of students and scholars. With fresh relevance in this age of ubiquitous visual media, From Site to Sight demonstrates the enduring value of the archive and informs readers about the ways in which the photographic image reflects changing perceptions of anthropologists toward their subjects.--

Publication Date

  • 2017

Authors