Camera Illuminate - Arab Photography Post Arab Revolutions

Autores/as

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1344/regac2019.1.06

Palabras clave:

Photography, agency, self-criticism, subjectivity, art, arab revolutions, fotografía, agencia, autocrítica, subjetividad, arte, revoluciones árabes

Resumen

“Arab Photography” has often been associated with the oriental(ist) aesthetic, showcasing the Arab “subjects” to the West as ‘photographed’ rather than “photographer.” This focus has shifted ever since the Arab revolutions presented a stage for artists to express themselves through “revolutionary art.” Photography was a particularly interesting medium since it acts as a “double actant”; the photographer is a witness and, by documenting the unfolding events, he also becomes an agent of these events. In the post-revolutionary period, however, state censorship is evermore invasive, and photography was forced to take the role of a “civil” form of art in order to avoid censorship. This paper makes a case for photography as methodology and argues that it can inform us about the young Arab subjectivities in ways which other communication mediums cannot. Photography can be considered as a visual discourse on identity where the choice of photographic subject is telling of the ways in which Arab photographers deal with their social, political and physical environments. This medium lends itself to be a discursive practice due to the agency it allows as well as its inherent process of Othering. The agential aspect is done through a careful selection/filtering of experience and othering allows for an othering of the self which is fertile ground for self-criticism.

 

La “fotografía árabe” se ha asociado a menudo con la estética oriental(ista) que muestra a Occidente los “sujetos” árabes como “fotografiados” en lugar de “fotógrafos”. Este enfoque ha cambiado desde que las revoluciones árabes han propiciado un escenario para que los artistas pudiesen expresarse a través de un “arte revolucionario”. La fotografía ha sido un medio particularmente interesante, ya que actúa como un “doble actor”: el fotógrafo como testigo, al documentar los eventos que se desarrollan, también se convierte en un agente de estos eventos. Sin embargo, en el período postrevolucionario, la censura estatal se vuelve cada vez más invasiva, y la fotografía se ve obligada a asumir el papel de una forma de arte “civil” para evitarla. Este artículo aboga por la fotografía como metodología y argumenta que ésta puede informarnos sobre las más jóvenes subjetividades árabes como otros medios de comunicación no pueden hacer. La fotografía puede considerarse un discurso visual sobre la identidad en el que la elección del sujeto fotográfico explica las formas en que los fotógrafos árabes tratan sus entornos sociales, políticos y físicos. Este medio se presta para ser una práctica discursiva debido a la agencia que permite, así como a su proceso inherente de “Othering.” El aspecto agencial se realiza a través de una selección / filtrado cuidadoso de la experiencia, y el otro permite un intercambio del yo que es un terreno fértil para la autocrítica.

 

 

Biografía del autor/a

Alaa Badr, The European University Institute

PhD Researcher in the Social and Political department

Citas

Andén-Papadopoulos, Kari. “Citizen Camera-Witnessing: Embodied Political Dissent in the Age of ‘Mediated Mass Self-Communication.’” New Media & Society 16, no. 5 (May 31, 2013): 753–69. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444813489863.

Anwar, I. (2017). Egyptian photographer Heba Khalifa in interview: “A space for confronting our fears.” Retrieved May 30, 2018, from https://en.qantara.de/content/egyptian-photographer-heba-khalifa-ininterview-a-space-for-confronting-our-fears

Azoulay, A. (2009). Civil Contract of Photography. New York: Zone books.

Azoulay, A.(2015). Civil Imagination: A Political Ontology of Photography. Verso.

Barthes, R. (1980). Camera Lucida. (R. Howard, Trans.). London: Vintage.

Barthes, R. (2004). Rhetoric of the Image. In The Photography Reader. London: Routledge Publishing.

Batchen, G. (2002). Proem. Afterimage 29, 26(6).

Benjamin, W. (2002). Benjamin, Selected Writings, Volume 3: 1935–1938. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bourdieu, P. (1990). Photography: A Middle-Brow Art. (L. Boltanski, R. Castel, J.-C. Chamboredon, & D. Schnapper, Eds., S. Whiteside, Trans.). Stanford University Press.

Dabashi, H. (2012). The Arab Spring: The End of Postcolonialism - an interview with the author. Retrieved March 15, 2018, from https://www.opendemocracy.net/hamid-dabashi/arab-spring-end-of-postcolonialism-interview-with-author

Dean, A. V. (2015). Framing the Photographer: Discourse and Performance in Portrait Photography. Simon Fraser University.

Derrida, J. (1995). Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression. (E. Prenowitz, Trans.). Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

Desta, Tedla, Mike FitzGibbon, and Noreen Byrne. “Exploring the Role of Citizen Journalism in Slum Improvement: The Case of Voice of Kibera.” IFAC Proceedings Volumes 45, no. 10 (January 1, 2012): 44–49. https://doi.org/10.3182/20120611-3-IE-4029.00011.

Elnozahy, M. (2018). 52 Questions About the Archive. Retrieved May 29, 2018, from https://www.madamasr.com/en/2018/05/22/opinion/culture/52- questions-about-the-archive/

Golia, M. (2004). Photography and Egypt. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.

Ismail, S. F. (2013, October 15). Revolutionizing Art. Mada Masr.

Issa, R., & Krifa, M. (2012). Arab Photography Now. Kehrer Verlag.

Kraidy, M. M. (2016). The naked blogger of Cairo: creative insurgency in the Arab world. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. (1985). Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. Towards a Radical Democratic Politics (2014th ed.). Verso.

Lury, C. (1998). Prosthetic Culture - Photography, Memory and Identity. International Library of Sociology.

Middle East Eye. (2018). Jailed Egypt photographer “Shawkan” to receive UN press freedom prize. Retrieved May 31, 2018, from http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/jailed-egyptian-photographerhonoured-unesco-press-freedom-prize-1715924874

Nora, P. (1996). Realms of memory : rethinking the French Past. (L. D. Kritzman, Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press.

Peirce, C. S. (1955). Logic as Semiotic: The Theory of Signs. In J. Buchler (Ed.), Philosophical Writings of Peirce. Dover Publications.

Prosser, J. (2004). Budda Barthes: What Barthes saw in Photography (That he didn’t see in Literature). Literature and Theology, 18(2), 211– 222.

Roberts, J. (2014). Photography and its violations. New York: Columbia Univesity Press.

Ryzova, L. (2015). The Image sans Orientalism Local Histories of Photography in the Middle East. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 8.

Sabry, T. (2010). Cultural Encounters in the Arab World: On Media, the Modern and the Everyday. London: I. B. Tauris.

Sarah, J., Jon, M., & Paul, C. (2008). Imag(in)ing ‘homeless places’: using auto‐photography to (re)examine the geographies of homelessness. Area, 40(2), 194–207. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4762.2008.00801.x

Schwartz, J. (2017). Is a Photograph Still an Index If It’s on the Internet? Retrieved May 31, 2018, from http://dismagazine.com/discussion/41736/a-discursive-mask/

Sheehi, S. (2016). The Arab Imago A Social History of Portrait Photography, 1860–1910. Princeton University Press.

Vali, M. (2005). Uncovering the Arab World: Photography and SelfRepresentation. The Arab Studies Journal, 2(1).

Walzer, M. (1987). Notes on Self-Criticism. Social Research, 54(1), 33–43.

Wittgenstein, L. (1971). Tractatus-Logico-Philosophicus. (O. Ramsey, Trans.). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Wittgenstein, L. (1972). On Certainty. (G. E. M. Anscombe, Trans.). Harper & Row.

Zubaida, S. (2011). Beyond Islam: a new understanding of the Middle East. London; New York: I.B. Tauris.

Descargas

Publicado

2019-12-09