Paper short abstract:

This communication aims to analyse the work of two groups of photographers from the so called "Global South" that builds their discourses (words and images) to participate politically in contemporary societies.

Paper long abstract:

This communication aims to analyse the work of two groups of photographers that produce images to participate politically in contemporary societies. The first one, a brazilian group from Rio's favelas, try to deal with a process of criminalization of poverty that exists in the Brazilian society, and that causes a series of interventions of the State, through the police, in their neighbourhood. The second one, a bangladeshi group based in a middle class neighbourhood in Dhaka, is concerned about the image the "western world" has about them. The image of poor and hungry victims of natural tragedies got even worst after the 9/11, when they also came to be seen also as potential muslim terrorists. How these photographers react through photos to these troublesome representations (whether an ethnicity, a religion or a social class) is the subject of this discussion. For this workshop I will reflect on an essay made by a photographer of each group in the field in moments of crises and diffused by alternative media. Through these examples I will analyse the importance of documenting the daily life to bring a image different from the register of spectacular events and how they register a complaint of the violence 'they' suffer. Preserving their peculiarities, I will reflect on how negative (re) presentations one makes about 'others' can produce a single unit around questions, such as identities, representations, selfness and otherness.