The Anthropologist as Curator: Introducing a Digital Photography Exhibition as a collaborative and Participatory Fieldwork Method

Abstract

Collaborative and participatory ethnographic methods present the possibility of an intriguing contemporary shift; from the anthropologist’s role as author to one of curator in/of the digital landscape. Photographs, blogs, and digital exhibitions can all be incorporated into the methodology and storytelling of Internet-related ethnographic research. In this article, I reflect upon the rationale of curating a digital photography exhibition as a fieldwork method during my research with Iranian photobloggers. I discuss how the digital exhibition offered me unique way of collaborating – remotely and online – with my interlocutors and other participants physically based in different countries. I conclude by evaluating the digital exhibition’s broader methodological and epistemological implications for digital/visual anthropology.