“We all die until the Times Photographer wins the prize”: Visual Culture of Forced Migration and Its Possible Impact on Displaced Students’ Access to Higher Education
Editor: Johanna Fassl - Franklin University Switzerland
In “We All Die Until the Times Photographer Wins the Prize,” Johanna Fassl takes a look at the visual culture of forced migration in award-winning photography and its possible impact on displaced students’ access to higher education. The visual canon was established 85 years ago with Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, which still is the official face of forced migration. Through an interdisciplinary approach that cites Predictive Coding Theory from the neurosciences, Fassl explains how unfortunate visual elements that appear repeatedly in award-winning photography, such as the fence or humans with dirty faces dressed in rags, become engrained in our collective consciousness and shape our perception of the migrant through a process of canonized iconization. The article calls for a ‘tipping point’ in the visual culture of migration by discussing Cesar Dezfuli’s award-winning project Passengers, which wrestles the individuals portrayed from oblivion and gives migration a deeply personal face.