In this blog I conducted a Photo elicitation interview. What is Photo elicitation? Another word for this term is photo interview (Tinkler 2013:173). This is done to encourage dialogue as well as generate useful data (Tinkler 2013:174). In this blog, tree narratives are the main focus. To tell the story about trees in the city. The meanings that are found in the narratives influence the choices of people regarding trees. It alters the way in which we control the trees (Dean 2015:162). This assignment reminded me about a quote from Dr, Seuss, The Lorax, which states “I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues (Goodreads [sa]).” In a sense I feel like the Lorax. Speaking for the trees and telling their stories.
Narrative of service (Dean 2015:163) : My childhood friend:
I remember when I was young my sister and I used to play outside my house underneath this tree. We pretended that the tree was our fort and that it protected us from the “evil forces”. As I grew up this tree grew up as well. Both of us grew and became the things we are supposed to be. The tree was in service of me and my sister, serving as our fort. This tree also serves as something which provides shade for parking. It was in service of our imagination and went on different journeys with us.
Narrative of power (Dean 2015:163): The little trees:
“I am a little bonsai tree. They never let me grow. They give me water and put me in the sun, yet they never let me grow. I try and try and try to get bigger, to reach the sun, but they never let me grow.” We can control how big we want trees to grow. Humans have a degree of control over nature. These little Yellow wood trees would normally grow up to 30 meters, but my dad and I keep them at a specific length.
Narrative of heritage (Dean 2015:164): The Symbol of Pretoria:
(Jacaranda flowers colour Gauteng purple. [Sa]).
Jacaranda trees are beautiful and are the crowned jewels of Pretoria. Their purple flowers covering the streets at the end of each year. People admire the glory of these trees. They are beautiful and can be found all over Pretoria and are the reason why some people from other countries visit Pretoria.
Counter narratives: the unruly tree (Dean 2015:165): The tree that survived:
Outside of my house there is a tree and I remember how at one stage the tree did not have any leaves and how it looked as if it was dying. My dad considered cutting it down, but then it started to grow. This tree fought to stay alive. It survived. We let it grow and now it has taken an odd shape. It is not the shape of normal trees. As if it is fighting the common image one associates with trees. It is unique and unruly and we have no idea how this tree will grow and what it will do next.
A Photo elicitation interviews:
I interviewed my father and asked him to provide his own stories based on the four narratives categories. For the first category, narrative of service (Dean 2015:163), my father spoke of a lemon tree right outside our house. This tree carries fruit throughout the year. It provides people with food and the means of making lemonade and it can be said that this tree serves and is of service to us in this way. The whole community takes lemons from this tree. It also provides shade, but mainly it provides lemons.
For the second category, narrative of power (Dean 2015:163) my father spoke of his bonsai trees which were planted in April 2015. These trees are Yellow wood trees. They are very scarce trees in South Africa. My father said he decided to make them bonsai trees, because of the reason that in nature this type of tree will grow to be 30 meter tall. My father describes it as a beautiful tree, but it cannot be planted by my house for the reason of how tall and big these trees become. It will cause problems concerning water pipes and others, so my father found the solution of making these trees bonsai trees so that he can still grow them.
The third category is narrative of heritage (Dean 2015:164). My father said that the Yellow wood trees to him signifies heritage. This type of tree is known for the reason that one can make good furniture out of these trees. It is also characterized as taking a very long time to grow. When my father thinks of South Africa he thinks of Yellow wood trees.
For the counter narrative the unruly tree (Dean 2015:165) my father spoke of Jacaranda trees in Pretoria, seeing as they are not native South African trees. They require a lot more water than our native trees and which has caused problems, yet there are still a lot of jacaranda trees which makes them unruly. Even though they cause problems, Pretoria is still full of these trees.
I also interviewed my mother. For the narrative of service (Dean 2015:163) she also spoke of the lemon tree outside our house. This tree produces a lot of lemons. So much so that one year there was so many lemons on the tree that my mother and her friends ended up picking a few bags full. They made lemonade with these lemons and gave the lemonade to everyone in the complex, but believe it or not there were still lemons left. So my mother took the leftover lemons and froze them. This tree is in service of providing food and drinks to the people in the complex. It also provides shade for cars.
My mother also spoke of bonsai trees for the narrative of power (Dean 2015:163). At my mother’s work one of the patients gave her boss a bonsai tree. She describes it as being beautiful. She says this tree looks like a full grown tree, but on a small scale. She is amazed that people can do these things to the trees. The ability to make trees small at our will. It truly shows human power over nature.
For the narrative of heritage my mother chose the thorn tree (Dean 2015:164). She describes the thorn tree as being everywhere she goes. It is especially prominent in the field. We have a nature reserve across from our house and she describes it as being filled with thorn trees. When she thinks of South Africa she thinks of the thorn trees. My mother says that thorn trees are particularly well known for the main reason that giraffes live off these trees. They eat the leaves.
The counter narrative the unruly tree (Dean 2015:165). My mother said that as a child there was a tree in her yard. Her father absolutely hated the tree. It shed a lot of leaves, especially in autumn. This resulted in everything being covered with leaves. My mother and her brother loved climbing the tree and building things on it. This tree had to be trimmed often, but it still shed leaves making it a very unruly tree.
The last person I interviewed was my sister, Chandre. For the narrative of service (Dean 2015:163) she spoke of her high school and how there are many trees located at this school to provide shade. These trees are in service to provide shade to cars, motorbikes and for the students during their breaks. There are a lot of trees on the school grounds for this reason. To provide shade for them. The people who chose where to plant these trees did it for this purpose.
Narrative of power (Dean 2015:163). Her high school had the power to rip out trees to make space for buildings they wanted to build. They had the power to choose which trees to keep and which trees to kill. They only chose to keep the trees that were good enough. The trees were big and alive and the school killed them. She said she remembered the outrage the students felt towards this action that the school took. They actually tried to stop them, but unfortunately the student failed and the school ended up killing hundreds of trees. They had the power to do this and they did.
For the narrative of heritage (Dean 2015:164), Chandre spoke of the jacaranda trees. They are the landmark of Pretoria. She says that is she thinks about a distinctive tree that is heritage to South Africa she thinks of Jacaranda trees. Even though these trees are not originally from South Africa, they carry the history of Pretoria and the historical events that happened. These trees are not only beautiful, but carry the past events of history with them. They witnessed the history of our country.
The counter narrative: the unruly tree (Dean 2015:165). When Chandre was very young there was a tree at her school that did not grow like a normal tree. It grew in all kinds of different directions. The branches were very low. The school didn’t like it, but the students loved the tree, because it made for a good tree to climb. The tree looked odd on the school grounds and the school contemplated that the tree should be removed, but then they saw the love the students had for this tree and till today that tree still stands.
In conclusion, a photo elicitation is very effective and had some interesting results. The tree narratives are interesting and made the people who were interviewed more aware of their power over the trees. It also resulted in interesting stories about the trees. I will leave you with my final quote “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It’s not (Goodreads [sa])”.
Word count: 1666.
Sources Consulted:
Dean, J. 2015. The unruly tree: stories from the archives, in Urban forests, trees, and greenspace: a political ecology perspective, edited by LA Sandberg, A Bardekjian & S Butt. New York: Routledge:162-175.
Goodreads. [Sa]. The Lorax Quotes. [O]. Available: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/886002-the-lorax Accessed 4 May 2016.
Jacaranda flowers colour Gauteng purple. [Sa]. [O]. Available: www.gauteng.net Accessed 4 May 2016.
Pinterest.com. [Sa]. [O]. Available: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/bf/4b/1b/bf4b1bd68aa2c85baacae36b2353254e.jpg Accessed 4 May 2016.
The Best of DeviantArt. [Sa]. The Realm of Psychedelic Art. [O]. Available: https://www.facebook.com/The-Best-Of-DeviantArt-1463199810659072/ Accessed 5 May 2016.
Tinkler, P. 2013. Using photographs in social and historical research. London: SAGE.
WordPress.com. [Sa]. Seussblog. [O]. Available: seussblog.wordpress.com Accessed 4 May 2016.
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