Mirada prismática: múltiples posibilidades fotográficas en el contexto de explosión social

Abstract

This research presents and reflects on the specific features of the creation and composition of a series of photographs that proliferated during the social protests at the end of 2019 in Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile. These images are grouped under a form of enunciation referred to as “photography in the context of social outbreak,” focusing on the photographic records of Luis Carlos Ayala in Colombia and Eric Allende in Chile and Ecuador. The study explores the possible distinct elements and characteristics of these images through a methodological metaphor called the “prismatic gaze,” which enhances multiple perspectives derived from the photographic act as a relational action. Using the prism as a metaphor, a visual archive of 432 photographs is systematized and analyzed from three facets or viewpoints: thematic recurrences, composition, and chromatic sensitivity. These angles come together to reveal how the photographers’ ethical and aesthetic decisions, combined with the immediacy and fleeting nature of the social outbreak during the protests, shape the creation of the photographs and, consequently, generate alternative narratives as an act of visual resistance.