Abstract
This paper problematizes the role of contemporary photography in shaping social spaces and identities in light of the current crisis of political legitimacy. We analyze projects that promote a process of “decolonization” of the image by combining the documentary representation of subject and space with the dismantling of power structures. Circa ten years after Bauman and Mauro’s Babel, the uncertainty of the relationships established between citizens and models of authority has triggered a growing human resilience and autonomy. Drawing from the work of artists featured in Tomorrow Today, Porto Photography Biennial ’25, in Portugal, we reflect on this symptom of the times: projects that, by confronting the micronarratives of the subject with the macronarratives of territory, also question the very legitimacy of institutional hierarchies and conventions. In what ways is this imagery of counternormativity also a form of coexistence, rather than a single, unified reality? In an era of fragile democratic values, the work reflects on the multimodality of photography by creators whose practice has centered on how processes of cohabitation and exclusion are defined. Expanding on Ndikung’s notion of pidginization, we ask whether this cultural distancing from the hegemony present in any “lingua franca” is not itself at risk of being assimilated by the artistic institutions it seeks to subvert – and whether, therefore, it can effectively contribute to a plural agency of subjects and experiences, whose effect also leads to greater clarity of public opinion. Future research will consider more cases outside the European and American continents.
Presenters
Maria João BaltazarProfessor Adjunto, Design, ESAD, College of Art and Design, Matosinhos, Portugal, Porto, Portugal
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2026 Special Focus—The Image as Advocate: Shaping Cultural Conversations
KEYWORDS
PHOTOGRAPHY, CONTEMPORANEITY, COUNTERNORMATIVITY, MULTIMODALITY, DECOLONIZATION, MICRONARRATIVES, MACRONARRATIVES
