Meeting Place: On The Role Of Relationships In Photography

In an effort to explore how the photograph inherently functions as a “meeting place” where the gazes of the photographer, subject, and viewer interact, I intentionally made it one through an interactive visual storytelling exhibition. The work aims to draw attention to the crucial role relationships play in comprehensive representation and social change. This thesis concept stems from the reflections and lessons gained after documenting vulnerable refugee communities in Iraqi Kurdistan and experiencing the importance of reflexivity and acknowledgement of power dynamics in the storytelling process. In an effort to avoid further contributing to the narrow presentation of refugees that is often seen in public media, I center the photographs around quiet moments of their everyday life. I invite the subject’s voices to be foregrounded through video interviews in which they initiate a conversation with viewers. By making the inherently multi-level, relational element of photography the main focus of the exhibition as opposed to an underlying truth, I encourage the audience to rethink the way meaning is created in visual media. By rethinking the possibilities of representation, social change is pursued and empathy is generated by extending the relationship between the photographer, subject, and viewer beyond the photograph.