On the latest episode of AnthroPuzzled, we sit down with Miles Jordan, a photographer and PhD student in anthropology at Louisiana State University whose work bridges visual arts, ethnography, and place-based research.
Miles is currently developing an intergenerational ethnography of the New Orleans music scene in the decades following Hurricane Katrina. Drawing on his lifelong connection to the city, and his background as a nationally exhibited photographer, he examines how musicians across generations have experienced cultural, spatial, and economic change in a post-Katrina landscape.
As both an insider and researcher, Miles reflects on the opportunities and challenges of studying his hometown, navigating familiarity, bias, and access while expanding beyond his own social networks. He also discusses how visual methods like photography and video can function as data, amplify interlocutors' voices, and make anthropological research more accessible beyond traditional academic texts.
Listen now to learn how anthropology, photography, and music come together to document change, memory, and cultural resilience in New Orleans.
