Cabanes, JVA (2017) Migrant narratives as photo stories: On the properties of photography and the mediation of migrant voices. Visual Studies, 32 (1). pp. 33-46. ISSN 1472-586X
Abstract
This article examines how the properties of photography might mediate voice, defined as the capacity to speak and to be heard speaking about one’s life and the social conditions in which one’s life is embedded (Couldry, 2010). It focuses on the affordances that the image provides for migrant cultural minorities to articulate such a voice within the context of collaborative research. I look at the case of Shutter Stories, a collaborative photography exhibition featuring the photo stories of Indian and Korean migrants from Manila, The Philippines. Using participant observation data, I show that it was photography’s ability to be all at once indexical, iconic, and symbolic that became important in voice as ‘speaking’ (see Scott, 1999). It allowed migrants to tell rich, multimodal narratives about their lives, albeit with some key limitations. I also show that it was photography’s inability to fix meanings with finality that mattered in voice as ‘being heard’ (see Messaris, 1997). Although the locals who visited the exhibition engaged with the photo stories in an overwhelmingly positive manner, they often did not completely grasp the migrants’ complex narratives. All this data indicate that collaborative photography exhibition projects should not just be about how migrants speak and are heard. They should also be about how migrants can listen, so that they can adjust what they say to how they are being heard. This is a valuable reminder that in conceptualising photography and migrant cultural minority voices, we also need to take into account the broader process of multicultural dialogue.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016, Taylor and Francis.This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Visual Studies on 15 Dec 2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1472586X.2016.1245114. |
Keywords: | photography; collaborative research; voice; mediation; migrant |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Media & Communication (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 06 Sep 2016 11:01 |
Last Modified: | 16 Jun 2018 00:38 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2016.1245114 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/1472586X.2016.1245114 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:104324 |