Una reciproca utilità. La promessa fotografica in un’etnografia co-responsiva

In this paper, I explore the reflexive and relational aspects of visual ethnography. Drawing from long-term research conducted in the Sienese Chianti region, I focus on an exhibition inaugurated in August 2023 at the Museo del Paesaggio in Castelnuovo Berardenga. The exhibition featured photographic portraits of the inhabitants of Villa a Sesta, portraits that I had taken with the intention of conducting a co-responsive ethnography. Ethnography and photographic exhibitions highlight relational strategies and negotiations in fieldwork. The ultimate goal is to demonstrate the forms of offers – the exhibition and photographic portraits – and requests for ethnographic data collection in a reciprocal utility exchange.