Visualizing a 'living' ethnographic collection: re-mapping photographic social lives and producing new knowledge

This article proposes re-mapping ethnographic items’ social
lives beyond the ‘collection’ as a method to activate potentials
for generating new knowledge. Photographs taken during
ethnographic fieldwork are put forward as visual entry points to
extrapolate layers of information and build important relational
contexts previously dislocated via institutional processes and
practices. Re-framed as social objects, these items are thus
understood as forming part of a ‘living collection’ that generates,
and will continue to generate, forms of knowledge aligned to
the interests of various Indigenous communities, institutional
agencies and academic researchers.