“Shot”: 1. The firing or discharge of a weapon, such as a gun; 2. The distance over which something is shot; the range 3. a. An attempt to hit a target with a projectile. b. An attempt to reach a target with a rocket. 4. a. Sports An attempt to score in a game, as in soccer or hockey. b. Baseball A home run. 5. Sports & Games a. The flight or path of a projectile in a game. b. A stroke in a game, as in golf or billiards. 6. A pointed or critical remark. 7. Informal a. An attempt; a try. b. A guess. c. An opportunity. d. A chance at odds; something to bet on. 10. One who shoots in a particular way. 11. a. A charge of explosives used in blasting mine shafts. b. A detonation of an explosive charge. 12. a. A photographic view or exposure. b. A developed photographic image. c. A single cinematic take. 13. a. A hypodermic injection. b. A small amount given or applied at one time. 14. A drink, especially a jigger of liquor. 15. An amount to be paid, as for drinks; a bill”[2].
I was writing down some ideas for a research project about "Care" - the role of social care in our days of crisis - when "ethnographic shots" come to mind. "Care as constitutive of the social bond and sustainability factor in crisis situations", a research by CRIA - Centre of Research in Anthropology (Portugal), intends to study this idea of “to care” related to family, mobility and vulnerability, sustainability and crisis, applied to different contexts and different actors, as refugees, migrants, LGBT, sex workers, people in margins so to speak.
A researcher may intent to be familiar to those she is studying. But nobody gets really familiar in such a short time. Even if the studies have 3 or 4 years of life, that’s not enough to say “I know exactly who the person studied is, thinks, feels and does”.
A researcher may be satisfied with the time spent with a group and may feel at ease within it. But really, in the end of the field work, what we have are only ethnographic shots, not exactly still moments, but mind pictures of episodes. Like a image in move. Like a tribal photo[3]:
This photo is not just one portrait. It’s a moment. A shot in reality. A episode shoot in time, forever still. Yet this still moment represents a location, a climate, a person, or a group, or better yet, in this case two, an interaction, a negotiation, a pose, a look, and finally the click. Does it really represent the person photographed? Or does it reveal the eye of the photographer? Who is more represented in that image?
If one wishes to devote her work to the critique of modernity at home[4], then one must be very careful not to work based on stereotypes, even if one thinks they are not prejudice.
The night I spend with a group of outdoor sex workers, mainly women, but also transgender, in a busy prostitution street in Lisbon, Portugal, I got the chance to see and live their interactions between them: from friendly groups talking and laughing (children are always part of the chats, cause most of them are mothers); to hostility over the non use of condoms with a client, that was approaching all the “girls” offering more money in turn of that non use, pretty usual stuff; to an incredible moment when one of the Portuguese girls starts to sing Fado in the one of the squares of the crossroads; to the end of the night, when the “girls leave office” and go home.
If one wishes to devote her work to the critique of modernity at home[4], then one must be very careful not to work based on stereotypes, even if one thinks they are not prejudice.
The night I spend with a group of outdoor sex workers, mainly women, but also transgender, in a busy prostitution street in Lisbon, Portugal, I got the chance to see and live their interactions between them: from friendly groups talking and laughing (children are always part of the chats, cause most of them are mothers); to hostility over the non use of condoms with a client, that was approaching all the “girls” offering more money in turn of that non use, pretty usual stuff; to an incredible moment when one of the Portuguese girls starts to sing Fado in the one of the squares of the crossroads; to the end of the night, when the “girls leave office” and go home.
"o pesquisador de campo é ao mesmo tempo ator, nas diversas situações de pesquisa, e autor, quando monta o projeto, quando faz perguntas, quando escreve com os fragmentos que recolheu. Alguns pós-modernos afirmam até que esta condição de ator e de autor deve estar sempre clara quando etnógrafos escrevem sobre as suas experiências alhures, que é ela a narrativa etnográfica (Clifford 1986; Marcus & Fischer 1986)"(Zaluar, Alba, “Pesquisando no perigo: etnografias voluntárias e não acidentais”, Mana vol.15 no.2 Rio de Janeiro Oct. 2009, Disponível em: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0104-93132009000200009&script=sci_arttext (consultado pela última vez a 30.03.2012).
This night was an ethnographic shot in my memory and notebook. And the ethnographic shots all together are the raw material, a verdadeira matéria-prima, of an intended applied and public human rights anthropologist. Why should we do research on peoples’ lives, discourses and actions, if not to give a voice to the unheard and try to improve those some lives?
[1] Ver em: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethnography (consultado pela última vez a 30.03.2012).
[2] Ver em: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/shot (consultado pela última vez a 30.03.2012).
[3] Ver Tribal Photo: http://www.tribalphoto.com/ (consultado pela última vez a 30.03.2012). Ver também: http://www.visualanthropology.net/links/ethnophoto.php (idem).
[4] Ver Zaluar, Alba, “Pesquisando no perigo: etnografias voluntárias e não acidentais”, Mana vol.15 no.2 Rio de Janeiro Oct. 2009, disponível em:
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0104-93132009000200009&script=sci_arttext (consultado pela última vez a 30.03.2012).
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