Watching Photography

Through an approach of watching photography, I examine spatial and temporal dimensions of photographs beyond the stillness imposed by the frame and offer an analysis centred on movement and place. Employing Arendt’s notion of appearance in terms of both photographers in spaces of (forced) migration and others who are moving in and across these spaces, I argue that photographs, as a space of appearance, potentially stretch beyond the moment of photography. Therefore, photographic practices not only visualise events of migration but facilitate the appearance of, and encounters with, people in flight. The event of photography offers a space which recognises fleeing as an action. By appearing in photographs, people in flight regain part of the spontaneity that they have been deprived of as stateless individuals, giving them an opportunity to reappear before others as subjects of rights. In this way, I challenge the notion of photographs as representations of passive refugees and instead propose a view that focuses on the actions (such as the act of fleeing) embedded in the appearance of refugees in photographs and how the event of photography expands these actions. I conclude that photographs should not merely be construed as representations, but rather as presentations anew, with people’s appearance in photographs being testimony to their ability to self-present.