Lost in the dream: A heterotopia of Don Bartletti's photograph of Enrique's journey
Research Mentor(s)
Schwartz-DuPre, Rae Lynn
Description
This essay offers two readings of Don Bartletti’s Pulitzer Prize winning photograph featuring a Honduran migrant child riding a top a moving train. Employing Michel Foucault’s theory of heterotopia, I argue that the desire to maintain the image of childhood as a romantic journey distracts from the reading of the text as horrifying. As a heterotopic space, the image offers two realities, positioning its audience to juxtapose ideologies they desire with the cultural realities of contemporary politics. Critically considering the image’s striking composition, prominence of fog, and the anonymity of the subject, the text magnifies the viewer’s unconscious connection to childhood nostalgia and distorts a more pressing reading of child immigration. This essay offers two readings of Don Bartletti’s Pulitzer Prize winning photograph featuring a Honduran migrant child riding a top a moving train. Employing Michel Foucault’s theory of heterotopia, I argue that the desire to maintain the image of childhood as a romantic journey distracts from the reading of the text as horrifying. As a heterotopic space, the image offers two realities, positioning its audience to juxtapose ideologies they desire with the cultural realities of contemporary politics. Critically considering the image’s striking composition, prominence of fog, and the anonymity of the subject, the text magnifies the viewer’s unconscious connection to childhood nostalgia and distorts a more pressing reading of child immigration.
Document Type
Event
Start Date
15-5-2015 10:00 AM
End Date
15-5-2015 2:00 PM
Department
Communication Studies
Genre/Form
student projects; posters
Subjects – Topical (LCSH)
Photojournalism; Immigrants--Pictorial work; Photographic criticism
Type
Image
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this documentation for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author's written permission.
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Lost in the dream: A heterotopia of Don Bartletti's photograph of Enrique's journey
This essay offers two readings of Don Bartletti’s Pulitzer Prize winning photograph featuring a Honduran migrant child riding a top a moving train. Employing Michel Foucault’s theory of heterotopia, I argue that the desire to maintain the image of childhood as a romantic journey distracts from the reading of the text as horrifying. As a heterotopic space, the image offers two realities, positioning its audience to juxtapose ideologies they desire with the cultural realities of contemporary politics. Critically considering the image’s striking composition, prominence of fog, and the anonymity of the subject, the text magnifies the viewer’s unconscious connection to childhood nostalgia and distorts a more pressing reading of child immigration. This essay offers two readings of Don Bartletti’s Pulitzer Prize winning photograph featuring a Honduran migrant child riding a top a moving train. Employing Michel Foucault’s theory of heterotopia, I argue that the desire to maintain the image of childhood as a romantic journey distracts from the reading of the text as horrifying. As a heterotopic space, the image offers two realities, positioning its audience to juxtapose ideologies they desire with the cultural realities of contemporary politics. Critically considering the image’s striking composition, prominence of fog, and the anonymity of the subject, the text magnifies the viewer’s unconscious connection to childhood nostalgia and distorts a more pressing reading of child immigration.