Ethnographic Analysis Essay
For this exercise I took about ninety photos over the course of an hour and a half, attempting to portray some of the happenings at the 9/11 Memorial. Out of all the photos, I chose these four because they display how expansive the memorial is, in terms of meaning and significance. Some of my other photos are interesting and portray many of the elements I am interested in, however, these few stuck out and seemed unique from the rest, further adding to my ethnographic research. Although, it should be noted that all four do involve similar themes of what constitutes ‘space’ and ‘interaction.’ The pictures depict other ways of interacting with the memorial that I did not initially conceptualize as such and added new scopes of determining the
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The buildings, while not perhaps purposely built as a memorial, nevertheless, serve that function. Clearly recognizing this helps to portray a holistic picture of the block, which the memorial rests. Next, the second photo is an older white woman, in her sixties it seems, walking along the memorial name panel. She walks but never touches the memorial, only clutching the rosary in her hand. Usually, flags and flowers are the typical symbolic objects used in conjunction with the memorial. However, it was interesting to see a rosary used as well, possibly making the memorial as a space of prayer. In addition, eye contact should be understood as a form of interaction though, not just touching. I must remember not to give primacy to touch all the time, otherwise I will miss out on other forms of interaction invoked by the other senses. The third photo was a middle aged white man, eating at the Memorial. Here, I see a type of interaction that was not a part of my conventional understanding, but yet still prevalent among guests. Eating does happen on the official memorial grounds, but most of the time this eating is not done by people who are busy taking photos or walking around it. I believe this difference allows me to discern New Yorkers from non-New Yorkers.
The buildings, while not perhaps purposely built as a memorial, nevertheless, serve that function. Clearly recognizing this helps to portray a holistic picture of the block, which the memorial rests. Next, the second photo is an older white woman, in her sixties it seems, walking along the memorial name panel. She walks but never touches the memorial, only clutching the rosary in her hand. Usually, flags and flowers are the typical symbolic objects used in conjunction with the memorial. However, it was interesting to see a rosary used as well, possibly making the memorial as a space of prayer. In addition, eye contact should be understood as a form of interaction though, not just touching. I must remember not to give primacy to touch all the time, otherwise I will miss out on other forms of interaction invoked by the other senses. The third photo was a middle aged white man, eating at the Memorial. Here, I see a type of interaction that was not a part of my conventional understanding, but yet still prevalent among guests. Eating does happen on the official memorial grounds, but most of the time this eating is not done by people who are busy taking photos or walking around it. I believe this difference allows me to discern New Yorkers from non-New Yorkers.