Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

3-2021

Abstract

This paper explores how digital photography – the practice of taking pictures and sharing them via social media – can give rise to representational politics. These politics are pronounced when disadvantaged people and places are the objects of digital representation, as they become (dis)empowered by being implicated in the affective economy of difference. Empirically, we examine the representational practices that Singaporean voluntourists, and companies that organise overseas humanitarian projects, engage in. We highlight how their motivations for engaging with these projects can be obfuscated by the opportunity to generate influence on Instagram, which can then shape the practice of popular humanitarianism. In particular, it can cause encounters with difference to be (cu)rated, influence to be (re)produced, and representation to therefore be (de)valued.

Keywords

Digital photography, popular humanitarianism, affective economy of difference, Instagram, Singapore

Discipline

Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility | Photography | Social Media

Research Areas

Humanities

Publication

Annals of Tourism Research

Volume

87

First Page

1

Last Page

11

ISSN

0160-7383

Identifier

10.1016/j.annals.2020.103107

Publisher

Elsevier Masson

Embargo Period

3-11-2021

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