Les Nouveaux modes d’engagement par la photographie en Grande-Bretagne

Résumé En

Since the late 1980s, the heroic figure of the committed photojournalist has waned from the world of photography, with the nomination of Martin Parr as a member of Magnum Photos in 1991 as a symbolic turning point. Yet this does not mean that a sense of concern and commitment cannot be found in contemporary photographic practices. Many photographers’ collectives have been created since the 2000s that may remind us of radical groups from previous decades, though few of them participate in the renewal of committed photographic practices. Instead, it is argued, commitment lies in participatory projects developed outside the fields of art and photojournalism. Three cases are studied in this article – New Londoners, by Photovoice, the “I Am An Immigrant” campaign from the Movement Against Xenophobia and Simon Roberts’s Election Project – in an attempt to pin down new modes of commitment through photographs, especially involving digital media and social networks. From participation to individual empowerment, from collective identification to mobilization, from citizens’ photojournalism to the creation of public spheres for political interaction, photography’s unique potential for political commitment, having arguably been lost in the past two decades, has been reactivated.