Ethnography

"To whom does an ethnographer owe his or her greatest allegiance? Is it to the people studied, to the sovereign government of the country where research takes place, to the agency or foundation that funds the ethnographer’s research, to the academic or research institution that employs the ethnographer, or to the community of scholars to which the ethnographer belongs? Should ethnographers be expected only to add to humanity’s knowledge of itself or should they be expected to provide more tangible benefits to the people they study or to the world at large? Should ethnographers be held to a higher standard than the one applied to journalists, filmmakers, or photographers who also report on their fellow human beings? These, too, are unresolved questions, subject to lively debate."

"Overcoming dozens of expedition routes in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the islands of Oceania — as a journalist, photographer, and explorer of little-known corners of the planet — one is imbued with the traditions and customs of indigenous peoples. The term “ethnography” is a combination of the Greek words “ethnos” and “description”. Following the principles of “cultural immersion”, observing ethnic groups at the early stages of socio-economic development — for a while you become one of them, so that later, like an actor who has played a role, to get out of the image, recreating in books the passed, seen, felt."