The house that bleeds: expression and subjectivation in long-term photo-journalism

Abstract

Photojournalistic awards have recognized the importance of serial and long-term works. In 2015, the World Press Photo created the Long-Term Projects category that rewards photo essays built over long periods of time. We will use the essay ‘The House That Bleeds’ by Mexican photographer Yael Marti?nez, awarded in that category in 2019, to reflect on the status of photojournalism in its expressive and ethical dimensions. To this end, we will run an analysis of the essay and compare it with two other winners in the same category in order to recognize the role of the construction of subjectivity and the political action of the photographer when re- gistering himself and his family in his personal drama as victims violence in their country. Analytical operators are sought in the concepts and categories linked to the reflective process on images, their constituents, their syntax, their sensitive dynamics, as well as in the constellation association that they allow when thought as a group of images and text-images. Thus, the narrative links the sef-perception and the perception of the other in the same lived experience.