Relational Labour or Digital Resistance

Abstract

Much is known of the impact of digital technology, especially social media platforms, on conflict photography as a whole, but minimal attention has been paid to its impact on the practices of women professional photographers who hail from fragile democracies, politically repressive regimes, gender-oppressive societies and conflict-affected contexts outside the West. To address this gap, this chapter investigates the perceptions of and use of digital social media by this most marginalised yet least-studied group of photography professionals worldwide. Based on findings from (a) semi-structured interviews conducted with 20 professional, female-identifying photographers with ties to 17 countries outside the West and (b) analysis of 200 Instagram posts by these photographers, the chapter offers an understanding of (1) why, and how, digital social media platforms are harnessed as a professional tool by women photographers in non-Western contexts and (2) whether, and how, digital social media are utilised as platforms for alternative images that challenge visual clichés, stereotypes and biases regarding societies affected by direct and indirect violence.