Reproducing Refugees: Photographìa of a Crisis

Abstract

Since 2015, the "refugee crisis" is possibly the most photographed humanitarian crisis in history. Photographs taken, for instance, in Lesvos, Greece, and Bodrum, Turkey, were instrumental in generating waves of public support for, and populist opposition to “welcoming refugees” in Europe. But photographs do not circulate in a vacuum; this book explores the visual economy of the ‘refugee crisis,’ showing how the reproduction of images is structured by, and secures hierarchies of gender, sexuality, and ‘race,’ essential to the functioning of bordered nation-states. Taking photography not only as the object of research, but innovating the method of photographìa— the material trace of writing/grafì with light/phos—this book urges us to view images and their reproduction critically. Part theoretical text, part visual essay, "Reproducing Refugees" vividly shows how institutional violence underpins both the spectacularity and the banality of ‘crisis.’ This book goes about synthesising visual studies with queer, feminist, postcolonial, post-structuralist, and post-Marxist theories: "Reproducing Refugees: Photographìa of a Crisis" offers theoretical frameworks and methodological tools to critically analyse representations, both those circulated through hegemonic institutions, and those generated from ‘below’. It carves a space between logos and praxis , ways of knowing and ways of doing, by offering a new visual language that problematises reified categories such as that of the ‘refugee’ and makes possible disruptive, alternative, resistant perceptions. The book contributes to the fields of migration and border studies, critically engaging visual narratives drawn from migration movements to question dominant categories and frameworks, from a decolonial, no-borders, queer feminist perspective.

Full text

reproducing
refugees
Photographìa of
a Crisis
Anna Carastathis
and Myrto Tsilimpounidi
Carastathis,
Tsilimpounidi Reproducing Refugees
Visual Studies | Political Philosophy
Challenging Migration Studies
Series Editors: Alana Lentin and Gavan Titley
“This timely book opens compelling terrains of critical engagement with episte-
mologies and lived experiences of ‘crisis,’ tracing how the photographic can
become an apparatus of biopoliticized reproduction, visual objectification, and
epistemic violence, but also, occasionally, comes to articulate transformative
solidarity and utopian imaginaries. In thinking of ‘crisis’ as a frame through which
subjects and the political are (re)produced and made (in)visible, the book mobilizes
queer feminist, antiracist, and decolonial perspectives to test the limits of bringing
crisis and reproduction together. In so doing, it oers a valuable lens through which
to imagine the possibility of change, whereby photographìa might be repurposed
to unsettle normative figurations of the present.” —Athena Athanasiou, Professor
of Social Anthropology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences
“Anna Carastathis and Myrto Tsilimpounidi make a compelling case for the central
and indispensable role of photography in mediating the spectacle of Europe’s
‘refugee crisis.’ This book oe rs a vital critiqu e of the visual economy of obje ctification
by which human subjects crossing state borders are turned into the racialized and
gendered objects of other people’s pity or protection, or alternately, of their fear
and loathing. And by framing ‘crisis,’ the authors show that photography’s visual
economy is indeed an economy of power that inculcates ignorance and cultivates
consent and complicity with the border regime’s violence.” —Nicholas de Genova,
Professor and Chair of Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Houston
“A significant intervention into the politics of ‘crisis’ and mobilities, this exciting
book foregrounds reproduction, temporalities, and the visual. It demonstrates
the intensively productive nature of a metaphorical and literal queer lens on
human movement. Challenging containment in nations and families in favor
of making new connections, it oers a guide to thought and action. Read it!”
—Bridget Anderson, Director of Migration Mobilities Bristol; Professor of
Migration, Mobilities, and Citizenship, University of Bristol
Anna Carastathis is co-director of the Feminist Autonomous
Centre for Research in Athens, Greece.
Myrto Tsilimpounidi is co-director of the Feminist Autonomous
Centre for Research in Athens, Greece.
An aliate of
Rowman & Littlefield
www.rowmaninternational.com