ABSTRACT
In an era of digital connectivity, we are surrounded by similar photos of refugees fleeing from wars, political persecution, poverty, and systemic violence. Although a variety of socio-political predicaments and personal experiences lead people to leave their homeland, images of refugees used by the media and humanitarian aid agencies adopt generic visual conventions. They (re)produce and transform notions of subjectivity, sovereignty, and belonging, as well as the precariousness of certain lives over others. This chapter explores the images of forced migrations that have reverberated online through social media. It argues for the affective functions of photographs on Facebook, challenging the data ethics of these platforms and the ethics of spectatorship. It shows that the Facebook feeds on which we view photographs of refugees constrain and circumscribe interpretations of them and likely reinforce viewers’ predispositions toward refugees.
