Wykorzystanie fotografii we współczesnych badaniach folklorystycznych

Abstract

Contemporary folklore studies use photographs, especially family snapshots, to conduct narrative interviews in the course of a field work. They treat photography, which has broken the monopoly of spoken word in traditional culture, as a carrier of memory, human experiences and emotions, as images supported with words influence ways of comprehending the past and shaping the memory within local communities. New image-recording techniques also affect the method of carrying out field work, making it possible to perpetuate the situation under investigation not only on a photographic plate but also on video carriers and digital tapes, thus extending the possibilities of interpreting the current folklore sources. Documentation collected in this way may be published on professional web portals along with the text. The fact that image-recording tools have become so widespread also increases the pace of the changes taking place within the domain of traditional family and annual rituals: recording various events (e.g. wedding receptions or Shrovetide ceremonies) on a videotape and then posting those videos on the Internet, especially on YouTube, sets a new area of field work for folklorists and speeds up the process of theatricalization and carnivalization of contemporary culture.