Visual Anthropology – Production & Research

Using different audio and visual approaches in a qualitative inquiry enables us to engage with the people’s life in the process of creation. Utilising different media keeps research alive and people interested. Different art-informed approaches facilitate diverse sensory responses. Collage, for example, is a tacit way of expressing the lived experience. In a collage, it is fundamental to re‐see, re‐locate, and re‐connect things in a new way. A person creates a new platform and gives a new life to something that has already existed. Creating a storyboard and then actual recording of the story is another way of revisiting people’s everyday practices and sharing the narratives. These methods give precedence to shared visions between the people, the ethnographer, and the viewer. The dialogic approach in this sense is not only about sensory experience but also about its communicative dimension. This poster reflects the time spent together with the Karawari speaking Ambonwari people of East Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea, in 2011. It is composed of different drawings, photographs, and storyboards. [Presented at the PNG IMPACT conference in December 2017, University of Papua New Guinea.]

 

Visual Anthropology Workshop in Papua New Guinea (PNG) 2025

The most recent workshop I have conducted was in support of the Methods & Practice Development to strengthen Social Science Qualitative research practice at the PNG Institute of Medical Research (PNGIMR). The training developed a theoretical and practical understanding of the use of audio/visual methods for qualitative data collection, namely visual ethnography/visual anthropology, and it strengthened the extent of ethnographic research capacities that currently exist at the PNGIMR.

Laurie Bragge Legacy and Collection

An exhibition included video of Laurie Bragge talking about his work and life in Papa New Guinea – 50 Treasures: Celebrating 50 Years of James Cook University at Perc Tucker Regional Gallery in Townsville QLD, 30 October 2020 – 10 January 2021

Celebrated International Day of the Tropics 29 June 2020 with one of the 50 James Cook University Library Treasures: Laurie Bragge’s Kiap Photo Albums

2019 Exhibition: Bragge Collection (extended until 28 July 2019)