Visual Ethnographic Study

The story in my photography may not be a sequential story, but has been an emotional and personal one. My experience with photography has been from both, the side of the viewfinder and the lens. Being the photographer, you get to see items from different angles and perspective and that's something I always try to practice. As a busy college student who juggles many tasks at once, I find it important to always take time to enjoy fresh air and look at the nature around me. When enjoying nature, taking a closer look at the flowers, trees, rivers etc. have always peaked an interest to me. With my photography, I noticed that I'm drawn to landscape photography because I try to capture that delicate, colorful, and peaceful view. The purpose of these

Geography will never mean the same to me, the more I read the more I’ve learned it’ so much more than land and boundaries. What I’ve learned from this literature it seems to be the study of issues that affect people and the environment, and ways to solve the world’s problems. Geography is important because it affects all aspects of life. No matter what you are talking or thinking about geography is somehow involved. Everything in the world has a direct connection to place, location, interaction, movement, and region.

“Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future”. This is a quote by one of the most successful and innovative men to ever live, Walt Disney. He was successful because he constantly kept looking to make a better future for himself and others. He did this through interactions with the world and everything around him. Interactions such as these can push mankind forward. They lead to innovations that revolutionize the world we live in. It only takes one great idea to change the world and make it a better place for everyone. Human geography deals with how human actions influence and impact other humans and the world’s environment.

“Why Geography Matters More Than Ever,” was written by Harm De Blij. It was published August 17th 2012 by Oxford University Press, USA with 354 pages in it.

Geography is rarely a subject regarded with much esteem; even at the collegiate level, geography seems to slip through the cracks as an important subject. Many people don’t consider geography to be important in their fields, and therefore don’t give it much thought—but this is a misconception, a grave error oft repeated that would detract from anyone’s education. What isn’t taken into account is that human geography is not merely cartography—it is the study of the earth, and that includes so much more than landmasses and boundaries, facts and figures. Geography is relevant in numerous and assorted settings, from economics to religion.

In chapter five, we discussed several things on geography such as: ecology, the interaction of geography, demography, and environment. In the textbook they defined ecology as “the science concerned with the interactions between living things and their environment.” Human ecology which “is the part of ecology that deals with the way in which human societies adjusts to their environment. Ecological balance “is the term applied to the state achieved when plant or animal species, with its own characteristics and needs, has adjusted to its environment and survived, and when other species, which have likewise adjusted to the environment, prevent it from expanding indefinitely and from crowding them out. The environment is the sum `of all the external influences that impinge on the human organism. Geography is a social science that focuses on the spatial

Geographers study the relationships between topics such as globalization, regions, mobility, nature, culture, and cultural landscapes. Human geography is centered on the study of people, places, and the relationship between people and the environment. Geographers have a way of studying the many patterns within people and the different spaces

Through reading How the States Got Their Shapes and Guns, Germs, and Steel I would define human geography as the study of how different factors such as culture, lifestyle, geography, and environment dictate where humans live and migrate. Both books are able to connect how the latter factors influence the pattern of human activity and movement.

Geography is the study of the Earth's landscapes, environments, places and people and this captivates me. Ever since I was young, I have been inspired to understand the world around us. When I was only four, my family visited the Scottish Highlands and I saw the landscape around me with majestic mountains and exquisite lochs and felt a feeling of awe. Then when I was seven, I began to understand the world more and my parents took me to China - the emerging superpower and this sparked my fascination even more. I wanted to learn about the changing environment of the country, the contrasting provinces, the rural-urban differences, the natural disasters that destroyed people's lives and China's development. From a young age, I knew I wanted to solve the world's problems as a geographer, such as tackling imminent issues of volcanoes and earthquakes and to grasp how people shape the planet we live on.

To me, geography is simply the study of the earth. With that being said it breaks down into the study of land, weather, people, the migration of people, their role in altering nature, and the effect of nature on the people.

Society is made up of ordinary items that throughout the years are given value by outsiders, people who think outside of the world they are in, or by those, who are, from a different time period. Anthropologists have been able to study the differences in human cultures and how they have evolve. “There are now four major fields of anthropology: biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and archaeology” (Dennis O 'Neil). Within these fields are subfields, visual anthropology is a very important subfield of cultural anthropology. Visual anthropology is the study of the history of human customs and culture through what one sees or perceives in various types of media. Therefore, “…the use of visual material in anthropological research…is the study of visual systems and visible cultures” (Banks and Morphy). Since media is seen as a representation of the truth, it is reasonable to say that it plays a major role in the accurate views of how society is. There are two categories in which I would like to describe how visual anthropology tries to describe human culture and custom: images and objects.

I live in a country where I can meet people from all cultures and walks of life on a daily basis, yet still I have felt like a stranger in this “melting pot”. In the United States, the idea of diversity is a term I have heard many times when speaking of ways to heal the past of slavery and segregation, but I think that in the current political climate, diversity is seen as an enemy to the American way of life. I am an outsider in the country I call home, and my cultural background has impacted the way I see the world.

My photo ethnography is based off my experience at a church in Olive Branch, Mississippi. The name of it is Saint Luke Church of God in Christ. Saint Luke is pastored by Elder Earl Shannon, is located in the beautiful city of Olive Branch, Mississippi. They offer a big selection of ministries designed to meet the needs of families in the Olive Branch area. Saint Luke is also nicknamed, “The Ark of the Community”. Saint Luke has a long history dating back to 1925. In 1925 Charles and Millississ Shannon established Saint Luke Church of God in Christ. Saint Luke started out with just about twelve members. Back then each church service was held in the homes of the members. Saint Luke's first pastor was Elder Bonner. Elder Bonner was succeeded

Much of my passion for Geography is derived from the fact that it depicts relevance to all aspects of society. It is dynamic in a sense that my perception and understanding is constantly evolving with the growth in understanding and perception. What intrigues my further pursuit of geography is how Geography unlike other subjects has direct links to both human and physical attributes. By further pursuing geography at a higher education level, I wish to enrich my understanding of the wider significance of issues being faced and how it affects society on a local and global level. It is important to identify and understand the interconnecting aspects of the world around us and apply such knowledge towards a more sustainable future. Geography

As an intellectual discipline, geography is divided into the sub-fields of physical geography and human geography, the latter concentrating upon the study of human activities, by the application of qualitative and quantitative research methods.