ABSTRACT
Taking as a starting point the controversial reception of an ethnography of black lives in the United States and using Michelangelo Antonioni’s famous film Blow Up as a source of inspiration, this article proposes a reflection on the ethnographic exposure by distinguishing three dimensions, which stem from the Latin etymology of the verb exponere: to unveil and display; to report and recount; to lay open and render vulnerable. Each of these dimensions - uncovering truths, representing worlds and taking risk - are discussed and developed on the basis of an ethnography of policing in France. From this perspective, ethnography is generative of a social critique which appears to be especially necessary, as it is increasingly under academic and political pressure.
