Globalization and the Politics of Photographic Representation: Essentializing the Moments of Agony
| Published date | 01 December 2018 |
| Date | 01 December 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0973598418782745 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
1
PhD Scholar, Centre of International Politics Organisation and Disarmament (CIPOD),
School of International Studies (SIS), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
Corresponding author:
Debangana Chatterjee, PhD Scholar, Centre of International Politics Organisation
and Disarmament (CIPOD), School of International Studies (SIS), Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi, India.
E-mail: debangana.1992@gmail.com
Globalization and the
Politics of Photographic
Representation:
Essentializing the
Moments of Agony
Debangana Chatterjee1
Abstract
Prima facie photographic representations are reproducing reality, though in
most of the cases they are artificially created and subjectively interpreted.
Focusing on photography as a form of visual representation, the article
argues that globalization as a process accelerates this agenda of
photography. This article aims at exploring the cultural penetration
of globalization through contemporary visual bombardments. The modern
capitalist intervention has made globalization even more pregnable to the
grassroots of everyday life. In this way, globalization creates stereotypical
visual and cultural representations of the feminized societies. People
belonging to these societies not only remain at the fringes but also are
sympathized from an orientalist perspective. Two-fold questions remain
relevant here. First, how does the politics of essentialization take place
through photographic representation of feminized societies? Second,
how is globalization at work for the creation of these visual images
in a manner that in turn strengthens its own bio-power? The article,
thus, engages in the exposition of the photographic representation
Jadavpur Journal of
International Relations
22(2) 167–188
2018 Jadavpur University
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0973598418782745
http://journals.sagepub.com/home/jnr
168 Jadavpur Journal of International Relations 22(2)
by connecting its theoretical implications with the larger picture of
globalization. It picks up some of the widely circulated photographs
of the ‘backward’ Third World countries around the world as illustrative
instances and shows how these photographs capture the phenomenon
of essentialization reflecting a common narrative of suffering.
Keywords
Globalization, photography, essentialization, bio-power, Third World
Introduction
Visual data can be conceived as potentially anything ‘observable to the
human eye’ conveying any sort of information (Emmison and Smith
2007: 4). Visual representation plays a central role in the process of
meaning construction and communication through visual data. These
representations manifest through the language as a body of thought and
facilitate knowledge production. Therefore, visual representations end
up describing the beliefs about the reality rather than depicting the reality
itself. Visual images are one of the significant forms of visual representation.
Gombrich captures this, ‘We are living in a visual age. We are bombarded
by pictures from morning to night’ (Gombrich and Woodfield 1996:
41, cited in Emmison and Smith 2007).
The question arises whether visual images are benign in nature?
Though they seem to reproduce the reality, frequently their meanings are
artificially created and subjectively interpreted. Thus, images produce
the convenient truth about the world instead of replicating the reality.
Visual images encompass eclectic visual representations such as advertising,
cartoons, textual images, films, art, paintings, 3D images, etc. This study
focuses on photography as a means of visual representation. Photography
implies knowing about the world, as the camera records it, although the
camera’s rendering of reality hides more than it reveals (Sontag 1978: 23).
Due to the rapid expansion of connectivity and mobility in the era of
globalization, the flow of information and visual images has been rampant.
Globalization catalyzes not only the circulation of photographs but also
the meanings attached with them. Globalization is characterized as ‘the
economic, social, cultural, and political processes of integration that
result from the expansion of transnational economic production,
migration, communications, and technologies’ (Stanford Encyclopedia
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