More to it than meets the eye: Photo‐Eli citation amongst the Batak of Sumatra

Photo‐elicitation was utilized by the author in the Batak area of North Sumatra, Indonesia, to obtain information on Batak textiles stored in European museums. This article examines the kinds of interaction which occurred between the anthropologist, owner of the photographs, and the viewers of the photographs, from whom responses were being elicited. The data collected demonstrate that, regardless of the edge on reality that photographic documents appear to hold, the kind of information they elicit is subject to the same interpretive pitfalls as information collected in the field in other ways. While hardly a new insight, it holds important implications for salvage projects, such as the documentation of material culture, in which photo‐elicitation is frequently made to serve.