Modes of Self-Representation: Visualized Identities of former Yugoslav Migrant Women in The Netherlands

Abstract

This study investigates visualized identities of ‘former Yugoslav’ migrant women in the Netherlands. Ten women with roots in Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina or Croatia were asked to depict their identities in a series of photographs over the course of one week. Subsequently they were prompted to contextualize their photographs during an individual ‘photo-elicitation’ interview. The author identifies four modes of photographic self-representation by means of a step-wise analysis of the 1175 photographs: archival photos, self-portraits, still lifes and snapshots. The study shows how the four modes are used to visualize different intersecting identities. It appears that conviviality, togetherness, is one of the main features in their visualized identities. Moreover, the photographs not only mediate the people, events and objects of the migrants’ lived cultures but also elements of the research project in itself.