Artist as Ethnographer

Artworks in which the characteristics or customs of cultural groups are described, recorded, or given order. Historically, ethnographic projects (predominantly photographic) have focused on the systematic identification of a society’s types—an iconic work being August Sander's "People of the Twentieth Century" (roughly 1927-1964). However, in contemporary art, artists may seek to complicate such a visual catalogue of societal types in order to reflect the seemingly infinite differences between people and their experiences.