Cover not available

Article published In: Translaboration: Exploring Collaboration in Translation and Translation in Collaboration
Edited by Alexa Alfer and Cornelia Zwischenberger
[Target 32:2] 2020
► pp. 191–216

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Photo-translation

Collaborative practice in migration image research

 | Universität Duisburg-Essen
Published online: 7 July 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.20088.mer
Abstract
This article introduces the concept of ‘photo-translation’ for studying documentary photography as a collaborative practice of visual translation. The visual-translational approach to photo documentation is applied in a novel way to the emerging field of contemporary migration photography, thus relating recent theoretical connections between translation and migration studies to explorations in visual studies. The study discusses how participatory and collaborative practices are increasingly used in contemporary photo documentation to challenge, if not remove, the relational ‘othering’ effect inherent in the photo-documentary representation of refugees, migrants and displaced peoples. The potential of translaboration as a mode of translational collaboration is explored through an in-depth analysis of two photo projects: (1) the participatory photo project Fotohistorias (Gomez, Ricardo, and Sara Vannini. 2015. Fotohistorias: Participatory Photography and the Experience of Migration. Washington: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), conducted by social and information scientists Ricardo Gomez and Sara Vannini in cooperation with migrants at the US–Mexico border; and (2) the collaborative photo–graphic novel project Lampedusa: Image Stories from the Edge of Europe (Migrant Image Research Group. 2017. Lampedusa: Image Stories from the Edge of Europe. Leipzig: Spector Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), carried out by the Migrant Image Research Group under the guidance of Armin Linke. Demanding agency in visual translation proves to be essential for these participatory photo projects, since they aim to challenge dominant visual representations of how migration is narrated and represented in the media and academic discourse. For this reason, the investigation draws on new sociological approaches in Translation Studies in order to frame photo-translation as a social practice and as a form of (activist) engagement involving various agents and institutions.
Article outline
  • 1.Photo-translation in the context of migration research: Theoretical and methodological considerations
  • 2.Migrants as collaborators: Potential and limitations of translaboration in the participatory photo project Fotohistorias
  • 3.Translaboration as a practice of resistance: Photo–graphic translation and agency in the photo project Lampedusa: Image Stories from the Edge of Europe
  • 4.Translaboration as a new research approach to the study of photo-translation
  • Notes
  • References
References (51)
References
Ahmed, Maroussia, Corinne Alexandre-Garner, Nicholas Serruys, Iulian Toma, and Isabelle Keller-Privat. 2015. Migrations/Translations. Paris: Presses universitaires de Paris Ouest.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alfer, Alexa. 2017. “Entering the Translab: Translation as Collaboration, Collaboration as Translation, and the Third Space of ‘Translaboration’.” In ‘Translaboration’: Translation as Collaboration, edited by Alexa Alfer, special issue of Translation and Translanguaging in Multicultural Contexts 3 (3): 275–290. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Angelelli, Claudia, ed. 2014. The Sociological Turn in Translation and Interpreting Studies. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Azoulay, Ariella. 2008. The Civil Contract of Photography. Translated by Rela Mazali and Ruvik Danieli. New York: Zone Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. Civil Imagination: A Political Ontology of Photography. Translated by Louise Bethlehem. London: Verso.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bachmann-Medick, Doris. 2012. “Translation – A Concept and Model for the Study of Culture.” In Travelling Concepts for the Study of Culture, edited by Birgit Neumann and Ansgar Nünning, 23–44. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. Cultural Turns: New Orientations in the Study of Culture. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2018. “Migration as Translation.” In Migration: Changing Concepts, Critical Approaches, edited by Doris Bachmann-Medick and Jens Kugele, 273–293. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bal, Mieke. 2019. “Close Encounters: Producing Mutual ʻIntegration’.” In Handbook of Art and Global Migration: Theories, Practices, and Challenges, edited by Burcu Dogramaci and Birgit Mersmann, 79–101, Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Banks, Marcus, and David Zeitlyn, eds. 2015. Visual Methods in Social Research. 2nd ed. London: SAGE.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bassnett, Susan, and André Lefevere, eds. 1990. Translation, History, and Culture. London: Printer Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boehm, Gottfried. 1995. “Die Wiederkehr der Bilder.” In Was ist ein Bild?, edited by Gottfried Boehm, 11–38. München: Wihelm Fink.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Buzelin, Hélène. 2011. “Agents of Translation.” In Handbook of Translation Studies, vol. 21, edited by Yves Gambier and Luc Van Doorslaer, 6–12. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Callon, Michel. 1984. “Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay.” The Sociological Review 32 (1): 196–233. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Calore, Elisa. 2017. “Migrant Image Research Group: An Image – A Statement.” Accessed August 28, 2018. [URL]
Cordingley, Anthony, and Céline Frigau Manning, eds. 2017. Collaborative Translation: From the Renaissance to the Digital Age. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cronin, Michael. 2003. Translation and Globalization. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Translation and Identity. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Curtis, Neal. 2010. The Pictorial Turn. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Felski, Rita. 2016. “Comparison and Translation: A Perspective from Actor–Network Theory.” Comparative Literature Studies 53 (4): 747–765. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fernández-Ocampo, Anox, and Michaela Wolf, eds. 2014. Framing the Interpreter: Towards a Visual Perspective. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gomez, Ricardo, and Sara Vannini. 2015. Fotohistorias: Participatory Photography and the Experience of Migration. Washington: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gomez, Ricardo, Ivette Bayo, Philip Reed, Cherry Wang, and M. Marisol Silva. 2013. “Fearless Cards: A Low-Tech Solution to Help Overcome Emotional Barriers to ICT Adoption Among Marginalized Populations.” EJISDC – Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries 56 (1), 1–15. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hekkanen, Raila. 2009. “Fields, Networks and Finnish Prose: A Comparison of Bourdieusian Field Theory and Actor–Network Theory in Translation Sociology.” In Translation and the (Trans)formation of Identities: Selected Papers of the CETRA Research Seminar in Translation Studies 2008, edited by Dries De Crom, 1–22. [URL]
Hermans, Theo. 1996. “The Translator’s Voice in Translated Narrative.” Target: International Journal of Translation Studies 8 (1): 23–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Inghilleri, Moira. 2017. Translation and Migration. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jakobson, Roman. 1959. “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation.” In On Translation, edited by Reuben A. Brower, 232–239. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jansen, Hanne, and Anna Wegener. 2013. “Multiple Translatorship.” In Authorial and Editorial Voices in Translation 1: Collaborative Relationships between Authors, Translators and Performers, edited by Hanne Jansen and Anne Wegener, 1–39. Montréal: Éditions québequois de l’œuvre.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Latour, Bruno. 1996. “On Actor–Network Theory: A Few Clarifications.” Soziale Welt 47 (4): 369–381.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maar, Christa, and Hubert Burda, eds. 2004. Iconic Turn: Die neue Macht der Bilder. Köln: DuMont.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mersmann, Birgit. 2008. “(Fern-)Verkehr der Bilder: Mediologie als methodischer Brückenschlag zwischen Bild- und Übersetzungswissenschaft.” In Mediologie als Methode, edited by Thomas Weber and Birgit Mersmann, 149–168. Berlin: Avinus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. “D/Rifts between Visual Culture and Image Culture: Relocations of the Transnational Study of the Visual.” In The Trans/National Study of Culture: A Translational Perspective, edited by Doris Bachmann-Medick, 237–260. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Migrant Image Research Group. 2017. Lampedusa: Image Stories from the Edge of Europe. Leipzig: Spector Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mitchell, W. J. T. 1995. Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Palmer, Daniel. 2013. “A Collaborative Turn in Contemporary Photography?” photographies 6 (1): 117–125. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pink, Sarah. 2001. Doing Visual Ethnography: Images, Media and Representation in Research. London: SAGE.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polezzi, Loredana. 2012a. “Translation and Migration.” Translation Studies 5 (3): 345–356. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012b. “Migration and Translation.” Handbook of Translation Studies, vol. 31, edited by Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer, 102–107. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roberts, John. 2014. Photography and its Violations. New York: Columbia University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shiga, John. 2007. “Translations: Artifacts from an Actor–Network Perspective.” Artifact 1 (1): 40–55. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spector Books. n.d. “About.” Accessed December 12, 2018. [URL]
Szörényi, Anna. 2006. “The Images Speak for Themselves? Reading Refugee Coffee-Table Books.” Visual Studies 21 (1): 24–41. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tymoczko, Maria. 2005. “Trajectories of Research in Translation Studies.” Meta 50 (4): 1082–1097. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vorderobermeier, Gisella, and Michaela Wolf, eds. 2008. “Meine Sprache grenzt mich ab…”: Transkulturalität und kulturelle Übersetzung im Kontext von Migration. Münster: LIT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wenzel, Jan. 2017. “‘Photography Is Quite Good. But Not Good Enough’: The Search for New Forms of Visual Display.” In Lampedusa: Image Stories from the Edge of Europe, edited by the Migrant Image Research Group, 23–26. Leipzig: Spector Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Whittle, Andrea, and André Spicer. 2008. “Is Actor Network Theory Critique?” Organizational Studies 29 (4): 611–629. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wolf, Michaela, and Alexandra Fukari, eds. 2007. Constructing a Sociology of Translation. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wolf, Michaela. 2010. “Translation ‘Going Social’? Challenges to the (Ivory) Tower of Babel.” MonTI 21: 29–46. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vannini, Sara, Ricardo Gomez, and Veronica Guajardo. 2016. “Security and Activism: Using Participatory Photography to Elicit Perceptions of Information and Authority among Hispanic Migrants in the U.S.” iConference 2016 Proceedings, [URL]
Yefimova, Katja, Moriah Neils, Bryce Clayton Newell, and Ricardo Gomez. 2015. “Fotohistorias: Participatory Photography as a Methodology to Elicit the Life Experiences of Migrants.” In Proceedings of the 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 3672–3681. [URL]
Zwischenberger, Cornelia. 2017. “Translation as a Metaphoric Traveller across Disciplines. Wanted: Translaboration!” In ‘Translaboration’: Translation as Collaboration, edited by Alexa Alfer, special issue of Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 3 (3): 388–406. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Xu, Minhui & Tianze Duan
2024. Networking in online collaborative translation. FORUM. Revue internationale d’interprétation et de traduction / International Journal of Interpretation and Translation 22:1 ► pp. 96 ff. DOI logo
Seo, Soomin & Sezgi Başak Kavakli
2022. Media representations of refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants: a meta-analysis of research. Annals of the International Communication Association 46:3 ► pp. 159 ff. DOI logo
Dai, Yun-fang
2021. Power imbalance in translaboration: a perspective from Chinese translation history. Neohelicon 48:2 ► pp. 599 ff. DOI logo
Dai, Yun-fang
2022.  Yinbian yanyu in twentieth-century China. Translation and Interpreting Studies 17:2 ► pp. 199 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue