The theory and practice of photo elicitation among the Khomani San of the Southern Kalahari

This chapter provides a critical appraisal of photo elicitation as a methodological tool for understanding what E. P. Thompson conceives as history from below. The discussion argues that reading photographic representations of other cultures is often structured within the flow and contestation of power. To study such representation, Manyozo contends, a scholar should construct a conversation among the circuits of culture within which such photographs were taken, were exchanged and are being made sense of. In conclusion, the chapter argues that reading ethnographic photography is a convergence of the experiences of the photographer, those photographed, the scholars reading the images and the sociocultural context in which the reading is made.