EXPLORING (MIGRANT) WOMEN’S LIVES AND STORIES THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHS

Year 2022, Volume: 9 Issue: 1 - Visual Culture, 251 - 269, 27.06.2022

Mine Gencel Bek

https://doi.org/10.17572/mj2022.1.251269

Abstract

This study explores the life narratives of ten women who migrated from Turkey to Germany in order to understand gendering aspects of migration with inhabited power dynamics, constraints, and possibilities as well as their life trajectories. The interviews with women on their lives and migration stories were conducted through the photographs they chose to show and those on display in the houses. The research questions of the study are as follows: What do women do and say about their lives with the photos at home and with the ones that they show? Which themes, words and discourses are repeated, absent, or silenced? How do they construct and contest their identities and feelings of belongings? How do they remember and connect with their past places and relations and imagine a future?

Keywords

visual, photography, narrative analysis, life narrative, migrant women

Supporting Institution

DFG

Project Number

Locating Media

Thanks

This research is supported by DFG. I would like to thank Destina Ünsalan who contributed in organizing the house visits and transcribing the interviews as well as all women who opened their houses and welcomed me.

FOTOĞRAFLAR ARACILIĞIYLA (GÖÇMEN) KADINLARIN YAŞAMLARINI VE HİKAYELERİNİ ARAŞTIRMAK

Abstract

Türkiye’den Almanya’ya göç etmiş ve halen Almanya’da yaşamakta olan 10 kadının yaşam anlatılarının izlerini fotoğrafları aracılığıyla süren bu çalışma, içerdiği iktidar dinamikleri, kısıtlamalar ve olasılıklarla birlikte göçmenliği toplumsal cinsiyet açısından anlamayı da amaçlamaktadır. Çalışmada bu süreçte fotoğraflar hem pratik hem de içerik açısından analiz edildi. Kadınlarla hayatları ve göçmenlik hikayeleri üzerine görüşmeler, onların göstermek üzere seçtiklerinin yanısıra evde görülebilen (duvarda, evin değişik kısımlarında, buzdolabı kapağında vb.) fotoğraflar aracılığıyla gerçekleştirildi. Araştırmanın belli başlı soruları şunlardı: Görüşme boyunca hangi temalar, sözcükler, söylemler tekrarlandı, hiç yer almadı ya da sessizce geçiştirildi? Kadınlar kimliklerini ve aidiyetlerini nasıl inşa ediyorlar? Geçmiş yaşamlarındaki yerleri ve ilişkileri nasıl hatırlıyor, bunlarla nasıl bağlantı kuruyor ve geleceği nasıl tasavvur ediyorlar?  

Keywords

görsel, fotoğraf, anlatı analizi, yaşam anlatısı, göçmen kadın

Project Number

Locating Media

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