Uluslararası Basın Fotoğrafçılığının Ürettiği Dünya İmgesi: WPP Ödüllü Fotoğraflar Üzerinden Bir Okuma

This study focuses on the image of the world set by the habitus/practices of the international photo-journalistic field by examining the photos awarded by the World Press Photo Foundation (WPP). The analysis consists of four categories: (1) the awarded photos; (2) the countries where the photos were taken and the nationalities and continents of the photographers; (3) the origins of the media organizations that publicize these photos around the world; (4) the nationalities and continents of the jury members of the WPP contest. Through a theoretical framework of Bourdieu’s concepts such as field, habitus and capital(s), the findings reveal that the media professionals/photo-journalists working in the West-originated (those in North America and Europe) media organizations represent Africa, Asia, Central and South America as the centers of war, conflict, terror, disease, famine/poverty, violence against women and children, unfavorable living conditions, abuse of rights. These representations are also approved by Westerners jury members in a Eurocentric Foundation (WPP) To sum up, this study argues that the West (Europe and North America) is produced as a place with a subject position while the rest of the world (except for Australia) is generally placed in an object position.