Karin Becker

JMK · Department of Media Studies

The photo essay, a form of visual journalism that arose during the era of the picture magazines, has reemerged as a regular feature of global news channels, including CNN, BBC World, and, notably, Al Jazeera English, recognized for its live reporting of political unrest. In 2017, a year marked by protest around the world, AJE published over 200 pho...

This essay traces the resurrection of the fotoescultura, a three-dimensional photographic portrait popular in rural Mexico in the early 20th century, as interpreted in recent works by Performing Pictures, a contemporary Swedish artist duo. The early fotoesculturas were an augmented form of portraiture, commissioned by family members who supplied ph...

The recent emergence of an increasingly participatory media culture has opened up new ways for audiences to collectively negotiate the cultural meanings surrounding celebrities. Public screens are one such phenomenon, where people gather to witness the live broadcast of celebrity events. Taking our point of departure in two recent royal weddings in...

This article examines the media event as relocated to public viewing areas (PVAs) erected in cities across the globe, where people gather to watch the events together live on-screen. The study is based on ethnographic research carried out in PVAs located in selected cities during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the 2012 Summer Olympics. We examine the...

This article examines a 5-year collaboration between the Stockholm-based video artists Performing Pictures and Talleres Comunitarios, a studio based in the Oaxacan town of Santa Ana Zegache where local artisans employ traditional skills in the restoration of religious artifacts. In images and text, we trace the exchange of skills, knowledge, and ae...

This article examines the amateur photographer as a common figure in contemporary news photographs, focusing on how the amateur’s gestures signify in journalism’s coverage of media events. Drawing on theories of photography as performance and ritual, I argue that the presence of the non-professional in the news photograph destabilizes journalistic...

Photographs of non-professionals taking pictures are a common feature of contemporary journalism. Drawing on theories of photography as performance and ritual, this article addresses what it means when professionals include these photographing “others” in their images of news events. It argues that the image of the amateur, performing photography i...

Examining how photography has been used to document and preserve national culture offers insights into the ideology of visual representation and its place in the construction of a common cultural heritage. Here, the Nordic Museum provides the case for exploring the photograph's authority in the institutionalization of knowledge of an authentic Swed...

My purpose here is to consider photography's relationship to journalism, and to question whether that relationship is under- going a fundamental change, as many claim, as we head into what has been called the era of post-photography. I approach the topic from three perspectives, corresponding roughly to the past, the present, and concluding with wh...