MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

This paper considers the ways images of migrancy function in popular culture. With the greatest volume of human migration worldwide since the Second World War, the flow of “migrant images” (T.J. Demos) shows no sign of slowing. Because visual representations of migration are structurally linked to the way images themselves travel, it is essential to contextualize the way migrancy is—and has historically been—represented within art, in the news, and in the media. Nevertheless, as Rey Chow cautions, discussions focused on migrancy can extend beyond the topic at hand, imposing a reified notion of otherness onto both migrants and non-migrants, as well as the ethnic groups who become rhetorically connected with them. Without wanting to perpetuate the othering and erasure that can come with a focus on migration, my research pays attention to which images circulate with the most ease, and the most traction – and why. Who gets represented in the media? Whose opinions are given voice? Who “matters” in each of these sites of agency?

Part of a larger project studying connections between migrancy, photography, and temporality, this paper focuses on instances where subjects take control of their own image and its circulation, rather than simply being photographed (and having the images shown) by others. A selfie, by definition, asserts “I am here,” but any such claim made by a migrant en route serves additional practical, social, and psychological functions. And while marking time, mapping trails, communicating with loved ones, or asserting one’s identity, any record of a passage is at once valuable and potentially dangerous; the stakes are higher than marking a path to follow or attracting unwanted surveillance. As artist Angela Melitopoulos notes, the refugee selfie does not simply assert one’s existence, but rather insists upon it.