Understanding Social Images: Essays on Visual Methods and Teaching Anthropology

Marcus Banks was one of the scholars who changed the way visual anthropology and visual methods were regarded in social and cultural anthropology. This collection of Banks’ essays considers the role of collaboration in the making of ethnographic films and makes the case for slow research. It discusses the meaning of anthropological research in film archives and illustrates how to analyse a wide range of visual material like maps, diagrams and enigmatic photographs. It situates Banks' work in contemporary visual anthropology and Howard Morphy’s Afterword explores how Banks’ work helped illuminate his own collaboration with the filmmaker Ian Dunlop in aboriginal Australia.