INTRODUCTION. Between August 1993 and May 1995, I moved from Boston to Tokyo. I was particularly enthusiastic about going to Japan because I wanted to study Japanese home media, in part, as a follow up to previous work with Japanese Americans living on the West Coast and in the Southwest. However I had been sent to Japan primarily to be an instructor at Temple University Japan (TUJ). Unlike the main campus in North Philadelphia, TUJ was asking its instructors to behave more like a junior college or a community college than a Level 1 research institution. Given this priority on teaching, which obviously meant time restrictions on research, could something be done to combine teaching and research without sacrificing the integrity of either?

Within this context, I developed a plan for a one-semester undergraduate course with two objectives:

(1) to encourage students to experience the fun and excitement of learning by doing, in this case, doing some fieldwork on problems in the visual anthropology of pictorial communication, and

(2) to obtain usable data for an instructor on a particular research agenda, specifically, problems in home media.

Furthermore, both should be operating in an ethical free environment/manner (I say this because inevitably there are questions on this topic). In turn. I wanted to know if this strategy could be used to gather comparative data -- that is, data from both Japan and the U.S.

In the following paper I will describe a 13-week course entitled Pictorial Lives: Explorations In Personal Anthropology (Anthropology 337). This course is an upper division undergraduate course primarily for anthropology majors. Given familiar enrollment problems, however, there is growing pressure to take just about any student who shows up the first or second day of class. While this course was originally developed for TUJ, I have had the unusual opportunity to offer this course to students in both Tokyo and Philadelphia -- that is, at Temple University’s Japanese Campus and the Main Campus in Pennsylvania. I hasten to add that I have sensed a kind of learning pleasure by students enrolled in Anthropology 337, and I have received a lot of pleasure from developing, teaching and revising this course -- it has made real the notion of mutual learning. As we all may recognize, this does not always happen.

I also present this material because within visual anthropology there appears to be a real need for examples of coursework that deal with something other than ethnographic film. When we adopt a stance or perspective grounded in an "anthropology of visual communication," the field of study becomes much broader than most understand. I feel we need examples to make this clear.

One key theme for this presentation, is making connections. For example, I want

(1) to seek connections between problematic issues of written and visual autobiography;

(2) to connect theoretical thinking about photographic representation with the real-life uses of pictures by ordinary people living out their everyday lives;

(3) to connect the classroom with the living room;

(4) to help the course, as one student said with some pleasant surprise, "connect with my family like I have not done in the past"; AND

(5) to help me stay connected to popular thinking about photographic representation to balance highly theoretical work which is often generating in vacuums devoid of any sense of being human.

Before describing some course details, I want to mention three (3) primary questions. For instance, we try to focus on the following kinds of questions:

(1) How do ordinary people construct pictorial versions of their lives as they create their snapshot collections and family albums? In turn, how do they maintain identities and cultural presence? How do ordinary people use their cameras to communicate information about themselves to themselves?

(2) How do individual family members participate in the "home mode of pictorial communication"? In turn, we explore ways in which home modes are related to mass modes.

(3) How can we study these questions by examining real-life situations and behaviors? Here I ask students to gain some personal experience in fieldwork -- something that I find has been steadily disappearing from undergraduate and, indeed, graduate training in cultural anthropology. In other words, this objective asks students to gain experience in original research by participating in modest field projects, talking about photographs to ordinary people, and determining the significance of photography in everyday life.

In conjunction with these questions, throughout the course we work on the following four (4) objectives. Specifically, the need:

(1) to develop viewing skills that enhance a critical understanding of vernacular pictorial forms as both cultural artifacts and cultural expression, both of which, in fact, function as a significant communication system;

(2) to develop a new respect for taken-for-granted photographic practices as culturally structured behaviors;

(3) to learn how humans have abilities to create statements about their existence through personal photography; and

(4) to review technological and cultural factors that combine to influence the symbolic transformation of life into pictorial form.

I feel these topics are becoming increasingly significant as relatively inexpensive camera technology becomes more and more available for mass consumption on a worldwide basis.

LOGISTIC DETAILS AND OPERATIONS: READINGS. The two primary texts for this course are Lives--An Anthropological Approach to Biography and Autobiography, by (L. L.) Langness and (Gelya) Frank (New York: Chandler and Sharp, 1981) and my own book, Snapshot Versions of Life (Bowling Green, OH.: Popular Press, 1987). These texts are accompan-ied by many additional articles and shorter pieces, sometimes found in magazines and daily newspapers. Again, these coordinated materials tend to strengthen connections to everyday life. A supplemental two-page bibliography of references is available for colleagues who might want to take this approach further (see Appendix).

In addition to considering the many problems presented in these texts and in many auxiliary readings, we also look at three feature films, namely Richard Attenborough’s Chaplin (1992) with Robert Downey and Anthony Hopkins; Ridley Scott’s popular Blade Runner (1982) with Harrison Ford; and an Australian film, Jocelyn Moorhouse’s Proof (1992) about a blind photographer (!). Each of these films, when treated as a visual text, provides ample material for discussions of factors that influence the structure of personal accounts and relationships between memory, credibility and pictures.

JOURNAL WRITING. Keeping within fieldwork traditions, and perhaps equally important is the requirement that students keep a written journal throughout the semester. This is the main form of student accountability because there are no formal examinations in this course. This sometimes attracts students to enroll. However students have confessed that Journals can be more work than exams, and I find that pop quizzes are on occasion a necessity. Journals are passed in for my comment three times during the semester. Student journals are a place for

-- the results of field projects (which I will describe next);

-- answers to specific questions I ask in class (in lieu of any examinations);

-- daily, real-life observations related to class readings, lectures and discussions;

-- critical reviews of gallery exhibitions, field trips or published collections of photographs that add depth to the assigned course materials;

-- clippings from mass media sources (newspapers, magazines, posters, etc.) related to personal observations and course materials;

-- original photographs, drawings, illustrations, etc.; students are asked to think of carrying a camera as much as possible, and even bring it to class.

I also ask students to use these Journals as a time and place to ask me questions -- questions that might not get voiced in class because they are too personal or just get overlooked.

COMPARATIVE RESULTS. Even with this Journal Writing assignment I found interesting differences in response and reaction. In general, I found the Japanese students preferred this manner of proving themselves and doing coursework in general -- this in spite of the fact that writing in English was a difficult task for many of them. This Journal-writing assignment was not a surprise -- Japanese students have been writing journals or diaries all their lives, in school and at home. The discipline of some writing every day or, at least, at a regular and consistent pace was easily accomplished. These students produced an extraordinary number of journal pages -- which delighted me in several ways. Indeed, as several observers have emphasized, Japan contains a tradition of journal and/or diary writing. The Philadelphia-based students, on the other hand, tended to follow the familiar last-minute scenario, writing their Journal entries at the last minute and occasionally with some reluctance. Clearly this part of the course it was more work than pleasure.

FIELD SITE. Students are required to specify a field site, that is, a home and a family they can work with throughout the semester. At Temple, both in Tokyo and Philadelphia, this works best with our undergraduates, most of whom commute daily to the school. The Field Site can be the student’s own family or a neighbor’s or close friend’s family -- but the family must be easily accessible. Several of the field projects will be done with family members and/or relatives, and others will be done with strangers.

It remains, however for me to discuss what the students actually do within this framework and with these lofty goals in mind. In the following pages, I want to (1) offer several pages from the course syllabus; (2) present an outline of the Schedule of Projects; and (3) describe several examples of student work and some comparative findings from Philadelphia and Tokyo.

SYLLABUS EXAMPLES. The following three examples come from the syllabus developed for my course at Temple University Japan (TUJ). You will see attempts to keep the assignments visual, to offer a statement of Project Objectives, to suggest Key Questions, and to prescribe Procedures for study.

These examples will be followed by an outline/list of Project/Journal Assignments.

• Photography-Self Study (with "The Invention of Self" in The Invention of Culture
                                by Roy Wagner and articles from Japanese Sense of Self ed. by Nancy R. Rosenberger)

8 • Comment on Japanese Newspaper Travel Photo (with "Photos Taken Before Air Crash Found" from The Japan Times)
   • (in U.S. only: Photo Button Survey)

9 • Snapshot Analysis (modified from "Analyzing Family Snapshots" in Introduction to Visual Sociology by Tim Curry and Alfred Clarke (1973))

• Analysis of musical messages e.g. "Don't Take My Kodachrome Away" (Paul Simon) or Wishing (the Seagulls), Pictures of You (the Cure), Picturebook and People Take Pictures of Each Other (both by the Kinks), Photographs and Memories (Jim Croche), and Turning Japanese (the Vapors).

12 • Two (2) "Dear Eastman" (or "Dear Fuji-san") letters (with "The Sociovidistic Wisdom of Abby and Ann: Toward an Etiquette of Home Mode Photography" (1984) by Richard Chalfen)

FOUR (4) EXAMPLES OF ASSIGNMENTS. But first, we should understand that all projects in this course involve choices people make about making photographs in the course of a lifetime. To press the concept of patterned behavior, I ask students to consider the following question:

In other words, when, where and under what circumstances can people create the pictures that comprise pictorial lives? The same question applies to the public and private display of photographs. Is there free choice? Or are some circumstances prescribed and proscribed? The fact is that we generally take for granted these unwritten agreements.

In order to gain a feeling for the appropriate and the inappropriate, I ask students to carry a still camera for the period of one full week -- from the moment of waking up to the moment of turning out the light just before sleep, for seven (7) consecutive days. Students have the option of actually taking or not-taking pictures during the week, but they must be seen with a camera by people around them every where they go.

The primary purpose of this assignment to understand better unwritten rules of appropriateness regarding the use of cameras in everyday life. A second and related purpose is to gain a new awareness and increased sensitivity to different meanings of "taking pictures." It is fully anticipated that most of the time students will feel comfortable carrying a camera and looking as though they might take a picture at any moment. But more to the point, as Journal entries, students are asked to record and consider when and where they feel uncomfortable and that camera-use is inappropriate. They must also report any reactions they get and any problems they encounter.

Comparative Results. One general finding to all of the assigned projects: many, certainly not all, American students ignored specific details of projects if they can. In comparison, most Japanese students followed assignment details to a tee -- sometimes too much so.

With specific reference to the Camera Carry assignment, American students virtually always report a successful week -- that is, the assignment was done (clearly this is not always the case, and, at times, there is a tendency to fake parts of the report...) However, for the Japanese students, over half just said they could NOT do it -- (a) having a camera visible attracted too much attention to themselves; (b) it was just too stressful; and (c) people said the student was interrupting private time and space (especially at home).

Two points catch our attention. First, one might predict that Japanese people would not object to what might be seen as "random picture taking" because, after all, the Japanese are thought to be taking pictures everywhere all the time anyway... NOT SO. Specification of WHO is taking the pictures becomes important.

Second, it was okay for gaijin (foreign, non-Japanese) tourists to take pictures almost any where, any time -- what Goffman described as social license -- BUT NOT SO for Japanese people in Japan. In short, only certain times and certain places were appropriate.

General Questions and Objectives: To discover a pattern in the ways that photographs are put on exhibition in the household. To understand better the non-random use of personal photographs in everyday life, and to realize the personal, social, political and cultural significance of life-on-display. The following questions become relevant:

• Who in the family makes the decisions about which photographs get put on display as well as how and where the pictures are displayed?

• Why have only certain pictures been selected for exhibition and not others?

• Why have specific pictures been placed in specific locations in your household?

• Is there any patterned relationship between the choices of photographic content and the selection of exhibition space in your household?

In order to understand the pattern better, I ask students to ask themselves the following questions: Would any person in your family be allowed or feel comfortable putting any picture on display in any manner in any location of the household? Or, is there some pattern to this behavior? Also, who gets to look at these pictures most frequently and least frequently? And how can we get to the "Why" of these questions?

Comparative Results. My general feeling is that Japanese family members decorate their homes with personal photographs much less than their middle class American and/or European counterparts. One Japanese student’s report was quite explicit in this regard:

Overall, photographs are rarely found displayed in Japanese household spaces. However, when found, the most common use of a personal photograph is related to religious beliefs. It is customary in Japan to include a picture of a recently deceased family member in a butsudan - a miniature Buddhist altar. Anthropologists Robert Smith and David Plath call this to our attention on several occasions. The second common appearance is of formal ancestor portraits, often hung at an angle from where the ceiling meets a wall.

In both of these contexts, I heard many comments related to an implicit belief in a photograph's power to reach departed relatives. There was a sense that someone was still there, and this person was keeping an eye on things, or willing to help out, or both. This sense of surveillance was expressed by one female college student, who was living away from her parent's home in her own apartment. She didn't want to decorate her room with a photograph of her mother and father reasoning that: I might feel they are always looking at me. I can not do anything wrong! I always have to study.

I began to hear echoes of familiar Japanese values. The private-public dimension appeared again and led me to speculate: Is putting up pictures revealing too much of the "inside" view of the family or revealing too much personal information? Indeed, can this act really be "harmful"? As an example, when speaking about his own Japanese home, I was told the following:

In short, for Japanese family members, personal photographs may somehow give off too much personal information.

General Questions and Objectives: When leaving home and going to work, do individuals leave their family members behind or do they bring them along in some symbolic manner? Do ordinary people bring their home mode images to the work place? If so, what do they do with them in this location? Are these pictures concealed or are they displayed in some fashion?

Our objectives were stated as follows:

(1) to examine the frequency of placement of personal photographs in the work place;

(2) to understand better some of the motives behind such practice;

(3) to distinguish possible social class differences/similarities;

(4) to discover patterns of social communication based on personal photograph display.

Comparative Results. My general feeling is that many more personal photographs are displayed in Japanese work places than in comparable American ones.

Here we looked at photographs that had been placed on office desks, or hung on office walls or other office locations. In Tokyo, we did find portraits hanging on walls -- but these images depicted people in the power structure of the business, such as the President, the Board of Trustees, the CEO, the Founding Fathers (and here, the male designation is appropriate), etc. In comparison, however, personal photographs were seldom, if ever, found displayed in the workplace. One middle-aged Japanese woman explained to me:

Another adult male told me:

When anthropologist John Condon discusses the Japanese affinity for person humility and compares this sense to American behaviors, he states: "The reluctance to advertise the good qualities of one's immediate family is one reason Japanese find it strange when American businessmen keep pictures of their wives of families on their desks at the office. "Is it because you miss your family so much that you keep their picture on your desk?" one Japanese asked an American. "No," said the American, "I guess it just helps to remind me why I'm here working." "Oh," said the Japanese, "then that's another difference between us."" (1984: 52-3).

In further comparison to examples found in the U.S., it is very common to see snapshots or portrait photography on display in a variety of work locations. In office spaces, employees commonly display framed pictures of family members (annual school/class pictures are common) or significant others on desks, under glass or on walls. Sometimes small photos are used to rim a computer monitor; one can now scan a family photo into a screen saver. Other contexts include the local variety store, the deli, or even the corner gas station. It is common to find a small collection of snapshots on a wall behind the service counter, etc. Finally, I frequently find family photographs used as interior decor in restaurants. Not so in urban Japan.

My general finding is highlighted by an inverse relationship. When compared to Anglo-American examples, in the Japanese sample we find more pictures are taken with work-mates and at-the-work-place, but less personal pictures are placed on display at-work. Again: might it be the case that in these Japanese contexts, photographs give off too much personal information?

General Questions and Objectives: People carry photographs with them on a daily basis. This is commonly referred to as "wallet photography" in American culture. In Japan, however, appointment books (most commonly referred to as "schedule books") or ticket holders (for train passes) may be used instead of wallets.

In this assignment we want to discover (1) if carrying wallet photographs is a socially common and culturally accepted practice; (2) if there is some pattern in these photographic images; (3) to learn if gender and/or age differences play a role in the quantity and quality of these wallet collections; and (4) to learn the reasons that people carry photographs with them.

Comparative Results. Given the documented affinity for taking pictures in Japan, I was surprised to learn that the Japanese we interviewed were less inclined to carry pictures than the samples of Anglo Americans I studied in the U.S. Carrying wallet photographs is not a socially common practice in Japan. One adult male stated in a most pragmatic manner: "There is no need to carry pictures because the purpose for carrying wallets is to put money inside, not pictures."

From a 40+ year old man:

And from one 70+ year old man: "I've never carried a picture with me except during war time. During the war I had my son's picture." And from another 70+ year old man: "I have never carried pictures. I think that people of my generation did not do that."

One student in my "Pictorial Lives" course made the following summary statement:

To summarize -- we generally found a reluctance to carry personal photographs, especially pictures of certain people. One female student stated that she carried three pictures of her boyfriend's cat but no picture of her boyfriend. When asked about this choice of pictures, she said:

In this statement we hear a sense of guarding and possibly honoring information about personal life. The speaker worries about an uncontrolled breakthrough into a guarded private life.

CONCLUSIONS: WHAT DO COURSES LIKE THIS DO? I feel very strongly about several results of courses like this. For instance, they

• get students working with visual materials and visual data;

• get students talking to real live people about habits of representation;

• get students to experience and participate in a process of structured research;

• offer opportunities/challenges to see familiar material in a new way;

• potentially reveals more variation and surprises than initially expected.

Finally, with regard to this comparative American-Japanese experience, students get a chance to examine the epistemological load of personal photography and the possibility that in other cultures, alternative epistemological loads do, in fact, exist. Not all photographic information is treated and interpreted in the same ways. Japanese and American home mode pictures may be treated with alternative senses of currency, authority and power -- different, that is, than generally accepted in the West.

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