Ethnography and New Habitus of Visual Production

This introduction frames a thematic section dedicated to examining how contemporary digital technologies are reshaping visual ethnographic practice and contributing to the emergence of a new habitus of visual production. Drawing on debates in visual anthropology, documentary cinema, and film festival studies, the authors explore the epistemological, methodological, and ethical implications of tools such as 360° video, virtual and augmented reality, animation, and multimodal storytelling. Particular attention is given to the tension between ethnographic rigor and the aesthetic and communicative demands circulating within film festival circuits and non-fiction cinema. By revisiting classic debates on ethnographic film and extending them beyond the cinematic frame, the section interrogates how new visual regimes influence ways of seeing, filming, and knowing. The contributions collectively argue for a reflexive, situated, and critically grounded visual ethnography capable of resisting exoticism while engaging emerging forms of representation.