Relational resolutions: digital encounters in ethnographic fieldwork

Abstract

The articles in this special issue highlight the relationality existing between researchers, participants, cameras and images, with each article bringing complementary perspectives on the use of digital images in ethnographic fieldwork. These include reactivating archives through their digitization for visual repatriation, facilitating dialogue and understanding between participant and researcher, analysing the relation between participants and the virtual spaces of their self-representations and exploring the range of capacities for new research methodologies afforded by digital technologies. Individually and through their juxtaposition, the articles highlight the complexity of the interactions between researchers and participants in their digital encounters and open dialogical spaces, in ethnographic fieldwork and in visual anthropology, about access, participation and transparency in representational practices.