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Ethnographies, self-representations, discourses and images: adding representations
Fabiene Gama (PPGSA/UFRJ-BRÉSIL)
May 2009 1
Ethnographies, self-representations, discourses and images: adding representations1 Fabiene Gama2
The aim of this paper is to propose a reflection about the construction of a representation (or representations) of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. I will look at the dichotomy “self-representation”/ethnography. For “self-representation” I understand to mean the representation that a given group builds about itself in a tension field where multiple representations are formulated. For “ethnography”, the construction of an anthropological interpretation, which is another representation. It is worth mentioning that this proposal also has to do with my writing process (or the process of creating a representation), which happened during my interaction with “my natives” during the development of the first text I wrote about them. From that moment on, I established a genuine dialogue with the group, where they would critique my initial reflections. It is about this quality of interlocution that I intend to ponder here. First, I would like to introduce you to the group. The Olhares do Morro [something like Looking from the slums] is a nongovernmental organization created in 2002 in a favela of the zona sul, an affluent area in the city of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil. It works as an agency of the images of the favelas and its objective is to allow young people to create a network of correspondents capable of feeding an inventory of the commercially viable photographs. In order to achieve this objective, the group establishes several partnerships that provide the project with photographic material and access to specialist photography courses and equipment the people involved. The images produced and sold are published in newspapers, magazines, websites and expositions, both in Brazil and abroad. On their website, it is possible to browse an inventory of photographs that is constantly growing, to choose images or to place orders. The price of the images will vary not only depending on size
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A larger version of this text was published in Portuguese in the book "Devires Imagéticos. A Etnografia, o outro e suas imagens” edited by Marco Antonio Gonçalves and Scott Head (Cf. Gama, 2009). 2
Sociology and Anthropology PhD candidate at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).
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but also on the buyer. Photographs sold to collectors differ in value from the ones sold to the press. Photographs are also displayed in expositions in favelas around the city with the objective of showing the work of the group to residents, and also to show them a positive image of their neighbourhood - one that is not just about violence. Before they are shown, the pictures are submitted for review by Vincent Rosenblatt, a french freelance reporter who coordinates the group, sometimes with the help of the young photographers.
First incarnation of the Olhares do Morro website intended to provide a new perspective on the representation of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, documenting, through photographs, the social and cultural life of the city’s favelas, exploring a side of them that is rarely shown by the mainstream media. They believe that because of their favela origins, these young photographers would naturally influence the favela’s image in a positive way. The way them represent their people would change the way them are represented by “others”. However some authors stress that, although groups that are politically involved with “self-representations” aim to ensure their vision is portrayed, these representations can also end up reproducing domination patterns. According to these authors, whether
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the image or stereotype is positive or negative the issue remains that a complex series of portraits are reduced to a limited group of rectified formulas (Cf. Stam & Shohat, 1995). Although representing favelas as part of the city (through the urban landscape or while reinforcing that in favelas there are cultural practices, honest people, and that it is not the exclusive place of criminality and violence), Olhares do Morro also refers to them as something different from the city (while pointing out the peculiar arquitecture, while exploring the fact that the photographers come from the favelas, and are not just young photographers etc.). Thus, in this discourse construction, this place is, fundamentally, a space of representational struggle. In this sense, when the young photographers and the project coordinator choose to use the term “community” to refer to the “favelas”, they are using symbols to oppose the stigmas connected to the idea of “favela”. I mean, the idea according to which it would be the place of mayhem, chaos, violence. “Community” supposes an idea of union, solidarity and cohesion; that has not always been characteristic of these organizations and their territories. Thus, it masks the diversity and multiplicity of interests present in a structure more frequently atomized then communitarian. Being used to qualify the group of inhabitants, it manifests the desire to substitute the term “favela”, considered negative, for a positive notion. On the other hand, it is interesting to note that when they talk about problems, or when demanding local infra-structural solutions, inhabitants often reach for the term “favela”.
Photo by Ivanildo Carmo dos Santos
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I have noticed two distinct phases in the production of the group: the first phase related to the documentation and the registration of the favela´s daily, and the second one where the artistic side was more valued, and the young photographers started to plastically experience the construction of this daily life. In the first moment, the photographs had a more journalistic profile and portrayed the general day-by-day experiences and structure of the favela: people going up and down the stairs, working, children playing, the “matança do porco” (pig being slaughtered), portraits, the architecture and special distribution of the favela. The landscape of the favela appeared next to the famous sights of Rio. They were free to choose a theme, but the universe was the favela, being understood as “the other part of the city”3. In the second phase, when creativity was more valued, the common points between the favelas and the rest of the city were brought forward and the group creates a series of themes portfolios: “Rocinha by night”, “Sexuality in adolecense”, “Feel the pressure” etc.
Photo by R|icarde de Jesus
While defining these two phases, I did not intend to oppose the categories “documental” and “artistic”, always present in the work of the group, but to highlight the change in focus. I suggested that this change seemed to follow the same change undergone by the organization, which increasingly seemed to be trying more and more 3
See Ventura, 1994.
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to approximate its work to that of the international agencies of photography, becoming distant from its “social agent” profile. The website, which in the beginning of the research was olharesdomorro.org, became, at the end of it, agenciaolhares.com. And it has been like that since then. I will show some images that may illustrate my point at the conference. While elaborating my first considerations about the group, I sent the text to one of the photographers and to the coordinator of the NGO asking for authorization for the use of the images in a publication. At that moment we began what I called an effective communication, even though some analysis created a sort of discomfort. The first has to do with this distinction I created between the two phases - documental and artistic. The coordinator, when confronted with my text, reacted this way: I do not value the “subjective” over the “documental”. These categories are permeable and hard to isolate. What do I do? I sort random photographs, and group together good pictures, from photography where a territory, a theme of investigation, or a play field is defined by the photographer. This is all part of professional trainning. All over the world, photography editors ask photographers to be capable to define themselves starting from a theme approached in 15 to 20 images. That is where the identity of the photographer is discovered. All professionals go through this. It is like a specialist degree that comes after the general studies of a bachelor degree. (Gama, 2006b: 107)
It was not my intention, while proposing the analysis, to divide the production of the group into two independent and rigidly delineated parts. Thus, in order to clarify my proposal, I used the coordinator’s commentary as one more piece of data and inserted it in the text as note, calling the reader’s attention to the fact that I did not intend to oppose documental vs. artistic, but only to highlight a change in focus. I brought another example.
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Photo by Jorge Alexandre Firmino
About this photograph of the favela Santa Marta, I wrote: This picture is an interesting portrait of the local architecture. In it, we notice not only the clutter of wires, the “gatos” (illegal wire connections to obtain access to power), but also the way in which the houses are built. From this image, we can see, for example, that they have electricity and TV in the favelas. The presence of Corcovado (with the Cristo Redentor – figure of Christ looking over Rio), in the background, places the favela, not only in the city of Rio, but also in its affluent area. The picture, dark and with wires and shacks all around, transmits the claustrophobic sensation that may occur in those who are not used to walking through the small streets of Santa Marta. This favela has a peculiar structure. Dead ends and tiny streets can be seen from the lower part of the hill, which make vehicle access impossible. According to the Favela’s News Agency: “the constructions, made of a more compressed kind of wood than the one used in other favelas, and built over a ground that can reach an angle of 60o, surprises architects and engeneers, challenging all laws of gravity. (Gama, 2006a: 73-74)
After sending the first version of the text to the photographer, Jorge Alexandre called me asking for two alterations: the correction of his age and the reformulation of the part where I affirmed that the picture transmitted a claustrophobic sensation. He understood that the term implied a negative value. I spent a couple of days thinking 7
about his restriction: should I follow his suggestion or my reflection? I pondered about the possibility of using a different term, free of qualitative value. I reached the conclusion that, as it was my subjective impression, it would not be easy to find another term that would be equivalent to the one previously used. I thought of taking it away from the analysis, imagining that I could be misunderstood and accused of having prejudice. I reflected about all the other favelas where I had been and remembered that Santa Marta was the only one to live me that sensation. Its particular structure justified this feeling. After thinking about it for a few more days, I decided to leave in my qualification. I understood that Jorge Alexandre possibly felt uncomfortable because “claustrophobia” was probably not what he intended to transmit with his picture. But if photography allows interpretations that escape the desire of the author, I understood that in my exercise of anthropological interpretation it made sense to translate this sensation with the qualification “claustrophobic”. Today I realize that my “interference” in the representation that Jorge Alexandre was trying to produce with his picture generated a certain discomfort for him. After all, we were building two distinct representations that questioned the “authority” of the representation: which was more accurate, the point of view of the anthropologist or of the native. Even when considered that an image represents exactly what is in front of the camera (its framing, focal distance, angle) it is always an elaboration, therefore, a selection made by the one who takes the photo. It is a subjective choice, a reading, an interpretation, in a word, a representation. Considered as such, photographs, therefore, can be used in the construction of new subjective “realities”. However, its reception is not always under the control of the author. And in pictures without subtitles, such as the ones published on the group’s website, the interpretation of the image is controlled by the subjective interpretation of the “reader”. Well, these are just two examples. For the entire time, in my ethnographic writing, I have considered the comments of the group about my reflections as a source of data and, for that reason, tried to add them to the text in different ways: correcting premature conclusions, inserting important suggestions or “simply” evaluating my affirmations better and what I intended to say. In many moments, the critics made my text more clear. In other moments, they helped me understand the discomforts of the group with the construction of an exogenous interpretation, the discomforts of the 8
subjects that become “objects” of an investigation, and even the disagreement with some of my interpretations. In this dialog, two important points can be highlighted: how much this interaction has contributed to my ethnographic work; and how we were both trying to reach a middle ground that we both understood. While proposing a parallel between the construction of photography portfolios and academic progression to explain that there was not a change in style in the NGO pathway, but a specialization in the young photographers, the group coordinator was only trying to explain, in categories that are familiar to me, his group’s purpose. By affirming that the choice of an investigation theme is like a “masters”, he was explaining that what they were doing was, in their way, the same thing I was doing - to go further in the study of a theme - and that this did not mean to reject what we had done before, or to underestimate it. This is just the “natural” flux of the professional. However, we know that to choose the path of a master’s degree is not the only choice possible, and it brings a series of implications. While questioning my categories, classifications and/or affirmations, however, the coordinator and the photographers of the group made me think, for the entire time, about the construction that I was elaborating about the group. They made many requests. From the changing of words to the promotion of the exhibitions and the website where the images were commercialized. They knew that the elaboration of an anthropological text could bring legitimacy to the work of the group. All the changes were negotiated. Some were inserted, some were denied, and others were “adapted” to the anthropological discourse. But, the most important aspect to be stressed here is how the coordinator’s and the photographer’s suggestions were important to the reflection I made about them. I can affirm that, in a general way, we added our representations. “In a general way”, because thinking carefully, I realize that, in my text, the choices of what points to approach, which words to highlight, what dialogs to build etc. were mine. The last words were mine. I wonder, then, in Anthropology, is there a way (or a reason) to be different? 9
References CLIFFORD, James; MARCUS, George. 1986.Writing culture. University of California Press.
GAMA, Fabiene. 2006a. “Olhares do Morro: uma reflexão sobre os limites e os alcances da auto-representação fotográfica”. In: FREIRE-MEDEIROS, Bianca; COSTA, Maria Helena Braga e Vaz da. (Orgs.) Imagens Marginais. Rio Grande do Norte, Editora da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte. __________. 2006b. A auto-representação fotográfica em favelas: Olhares do Morro. Dissertação de Mestrado (Mestrado em Ciências Sociais). Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. __________. 2009. “Etnografias, auto-representações, discursos e imagens: somando representações”. In: GONÇALVES, Marco Antonio e HEAD, Scott. Devires Imagéticos. A Etnografia, o outro e suas imagens. Rio de Janeiro: Sette letras. KOSSOY, Boris. 1999. Realidades e Ficções na Trama Fotográfica. São Paulo, Ateliê Editorial. MARCUS, George; CUSHMAN, Dick. 1982. Ethnographies as texts. Anual Review of Anthropology 11:25-69.
STAM, Robert; SHOHAT, Ella. 1995. “Estereótipo, realismo e representação racial”. Imagens 5: 70-84. VENTURA, Zuenir. 1994. Cidade Partida. São Paulo, Companhia das Letras.
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