Suspended Gazes

The Pictures Of The Disappeared In Jalisco

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29340/en.v3n6.130

Keywords:

violence, disappearance, photography, identity

Abstract

The war on crime has brought, for the past 13 years, a spiral of violence that has left deep scars on Mexican society. Every day, mass media records the expressions of the failed security strategy, although they do it mostly to beautify and spectacularize it. In the middle of the coverage by the major news outlets, war victims have opted for other practices, particularly the families of the disappeared, who use the materiality of images to create search files that help others visualize the absence of their loved ones.

The present work will answer the question: what meanings does photography have in the context of the disappearance of people in the middle of the war on crime? To do so I will rely on the analysis and display of files gathered during my fieldwork in Guadalajara throughout 2018 and 2019. The text includes interviews and sketches that allow me to illustrate the relevance that photography has in the event of a disappearance in which the identity of who is missing, tried to be displayed to others through this image, plays a central role.

 

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Author Biography

  • Isaac Vargas González, Universidad de Toronto

    Isaac vargas is a research fellow in the Drug Policy Program of the CIDE Central Region, where he conducts research on forced disappearance and militarization. He holds a master's degree in Social Anthropology from El Colegio de Michoacán; his thesis deals with the search for missing persons in Jalisco. His academic interests are based on the anthropology of violence and the State. Previously he was a research assistant at El Colegio de Jalisco and part of the research team at the Centro de Atención al Migrante - FM4 Paso Libre.

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Published

2020-09-21

How to Cite

Suspended Gazes: The Pictures Of The Disappeared In Jalisco. (2020). Encartes, 3(6), 188-205. https://doi.org/10.29340/en.v3n6.130