Ghosts of Futures Present: Photographs in the Filipino Migrant Archive

McKay

Abstract

This article explores the role of photographs in shaping the social selves of Filipino temporary labor migrants. Examining the production of photographic self-images by Filipino migrants in Hong Kong and their reception in the Philippines, I show how people deploy photography as a technology to bring into being their desired future selves. By making present ghosts of the future, photographs of the self shape distinctive translocal subjectivities.

Citation

McKay. (2008). Ghosts of Futures Present: Photographs in the Filipino Migrant Archive. Visual Anthropology, 381 - 392. https://doi.org/10.1080/08949460802156466

• Publication Date: Jul 16, 2008
• Journal: Visual Anthropology
• Print ISSN: 0894-9468
• Publisher: Routledge
• Pages: 381 - 392
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08949460802156466
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/08949460802156466