Why Draw?: Drawing Ethnographic Fieldnotes

In Why Draw?, Carol Hendrickson explores the potential of drawing within the context of ethnographic fieldwork. The book aims to inspire readers to immerse themselves in the generative process of thinking while seeing while drawing.

To foster visual thinking and encourage experimentation, Hendrickson discusses a range of case studies that show the possibilities of drawing in the field and thinking through the resulting drawings. Richly illustrated, the book focuses on current theoretical and methodological considerations in the social sciences, including semiotic issues of representation and indexicality, embodiment and the senses, affect, collaboration, and temporality. Chapters are supplemented with exercises, practical advice, and short interludes that provide inspiration.

At its heart, Why Draw? asks readers to create visual notes in new and different ways; contemplate a range of contemporary issues through the act of drawing; and explore the potential of drawing to act as a bridge between fieldwork and finished works destined for public presentation.

Carol Hendrickson is a professor emerita of anthropology at Emerson College.