Paper short abstract:

Set within a zone of conflict and humanitarian action in North Kivu, DRC this paper examines photographic creation and interpretation showing how a combination of ethnographic and photographic methodologies exposes connections between representation, identity, and regional politics.

Paper long abstract:

Western photographs of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) - a space marked by conflict and humanitarianism- often portray a victimized and helpless population. However, ethnographic research employing a combination of photography, interviews, and participant observation in North Kivu (DRC), shows that individuals alter desired representations of themselves depending on their assumed audience. For the West, they often foreground their suffering, while for local audiences they emphasized family-ties, globalization, and dignity. While these boundaries remain fluid, the distinction between representation for the West and for the Congolese reflects both political and social awareness through which individuals creatively shape photographic representation to reflect social identities and public selves. This paper builds from the 'writing culture' push for more innovative, subjective, reflexive, and collaborative research by engaging the heuristic potential of a combination of photography and traditional anthropological methodologies to explore the intersection of representation, politics and subjective identities. Focusing on vernacular and humanitarian photography of the Congolese, this paper shows how individuals creatively deploy and interpret identity within the dynamics of a conflict marked by identity politics (ethnicity, gender, regional affiliation) and a powerful humanitarian presence. By examining the spaces and acts of image creation and interpretation for context, intention, desire and (re)action, individual agency and inter-subjective creation become visible. This paper's linking of photographic methodology, representation, and individual creativity shows how subjects, viewers, and photographers articulate or challenge critical, and sometimes dangerous, social and political identities within the space of conflict and global humanitarianism.