A3 Refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book

To see and to show: Photography, drawing, and refugee representation in comics journalism on refugee camps




AuthorsNikkilä Aura

EditorsRalf Kauranen, Olli Löytty, Aura Nikkilä & Anna Vuorinne

Publishing placeLondon & New York

Publication year2023

Book title Comics and Migration: Representation and Other Practices

Series titleGlobal Perspectives in Comics Studies

First page 230

Last page249

ISBN978-1-03-218457-9

eISBN978-1-00-325462-1

Web address https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003254621-16/see-show-aura-nikkil%C3%A4?context=ubx&refId=97d131da-2740-45f9-a100-8d4a9a08b41d


Abstract

Authenticity plays a central role in comics journalism, and one means of creating authenticity in comics is the use of photographs. Photography is present in journalistic comics in multiple ways: either as reproduced or drawn photos or as reference images of the people and settings portrayed through drawings. This kind of application usually stems from the supposed truth-value of photography. Photography also appears as representation of and reflection on the act of photographing in the story world of the comics. Combined with deliberation on the act of drawing, this kind of presence of photography usually proposes questions concerning the entitlement to represent the stories of others – and in the case of refugees, others in a vulnerable position. This chapter centres on three comics made by artists visiting refugee camps located on European soil: Kate Evans’ Threads from the Refugee Crisis (2017), Aimée de Jongh’s “Europe’s Waiting Room: Visiting the Refugees on Lesbos” (2017), and Judith Vanistendael’s “Moria: Hellhole on Lesbos” (2017). The analysis examines the ways in which photographs, photographing, and drawing are reflected upon in these comics. Furthermore, it considers the visibilities that refugees are given in them and whether their representations move beyond the common tropes of refugees as victims or as a threat.



Last updated on 2024-26-11 at 14:45