Making Images, (Re)Visioning Mothers (a Photography Workshop)

Abstract

This chapter draws on phenomenological approaches to “dwelling in” and envisioning the world to ask how young women’s participation in photography workshops might offer a window onto the dynamic production of subjectivities (as mothers, or not). In a photography workshop, young women produce retablos, or portraits of themselves as Madonna and child. The chapter juxtaposes the structured activities of a workshop (organized by an international NGO) with more informal use of point-and-shoot digital cameras (which was integrated into this research project). Reflecting on the activity of taking photos, as well as the representational aspects of images themselves, demonstrates girls’ creative expression and experimentation as well as the moral dialogues in which visions of self are embedded.