OUR CO-BLIND -A Visual Ethnography of the Visually Impaired Community in the Northern Philippines

"OUR CO-BLIND -A Visual Ethnography of the Visually Impaired Community in the Northern Philippines" は、フィリピン北部高原地域の視覚障害当事者たちによる共同体形成に関する映像人類学的研究プロジェクトである。当事者たちのケア実践とその共同体の社会運動的性格について、長期のフィールドワークに基づく映像とエスノグラフィを足がかりに、その内側から多感覚的に理解しようと試みる。それは当事者たちとの終わりなき対話と写真生成を通じて、世界を「よりよく見る」ことについて目の見えない者たちとともにする哲学的実践でもある。

"OUR CO-BLIND -A Visual Ethnography of the Visually Impaired Community in the Northern Philippines" is a visual anthropological research project exploring the care practices and social movements among visually impaired communities in the northern Philippines. Grounded in years of fieldwork, photography, and filmmaking, the project combines sensory interventions with an ethnographic approach to uncover the community’s inner logic and forms of intimacy. Through dialogue and immersion in their sensory worlds via photography, the researcher collaborates with visually impaired interlocutors to philosophically examine what it truly means to “see better” beyond vision.


B5 size / 112 pages / Photography, Text and Design by Masato Ushimaru / Printed in Japan by inuunic / Published in Jan 2025


牛丸 維人

写真家・民族誌映像作家・デザイン実践者。飛騨高山生まれ。デンマーク・オーフス大学映像人類学修士課程修了（映像人類学修士）。フィリピン北部の視覚障害当事者共同体による社会運動に関する映像人類学的研究プロジェクト『OUR CO-BLIND』のほか、デンマークでの2年間の留学生活を内省的に記録した『FOG AND SUN』など。映像人類学とデザインのアプローチを横断しながら、写真を対話や研究の道具と捉えた研究・制作活動に取り組む。

MASATO USHIMARU

Photographer, ethnographic filmmaker, and design doer. Born in Hida-Takayama, Japan. Engaged in research-based projects such as OUR CO-BLIND, an ethnographic exploration of social movements led by a community of visually impaired people in the northern Philippines, and FOG AND SUN, a reflective visual ethnography of two years of research life in Denmark. Masato has a Master’s degree in Visual Anthropology from Aarhus University in Denmark. Combining visual anthropology and design methodologies, his work employs photography as a tool for dialogue and multisensory exploration.