Becoming Luis: A Photo Essay on Growing up in Bolivia

Abstract

Luis is anAymara boy whom I have known since his birth in 1996. Although he and his mother were not initially central to my research on migration in the Andes, they belong to the family I worked with in El Alto, Bolivia. During a return visit ten years later, I recognized the importance of his story within my research, and thus reviewed my field notes and photo library to find images and stories about them. Photography plays a major role in my research, as I use images as mementos as well as stimuli for discussion. With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and 15 years' distance, Luis and Basilia represent the quintessential migrant experience, one I may have overlooked if I had not asked new questions of old data.

Thinking through the Photo Essay: Observations for Medical Anthropology

“…We wish to stress that images take us deeper into the sensory knowledge of a subject through a visual portal. In the ethnographic photo essay, images and text must be complementary rather than supplementary to each other (also see Harper 1987;Pauwels 1993;Wagner 2002;Lovejoy and Steele 2004;Sutherland 2016, Marion andCrowder 2013).…”

“…Learning how to compose images that capture the eye takes practice. Experimenting with elements like lighting, focus, and subject placement significantly affect the image and the ways in which the viewer engages with the content (see Crowder 2013;Wright 2016).…”

“…Shots should be carefully selected, either during the research event of photographic interest or following it. While we encourage researchers to go into the event with the intent of making a series of images that can be used in a photo essay, many others may return to their collections of images to develop a story that was not relevant or obvious at the time the images were made (Crowder 2013).…”