%0 Journal Article
%T Concerning intent, interpretation, memory and ambiguity in the work of an informal collective working on the Western Sahara conflict
%A Michael Baers
%J Memory Studies
%@ 1750-6999
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1750698019836190
%X In October 2016 I made my first visit to the refugee camps of Western Sahara¡¯s Saharawi people near the Algerian town of Tindouf. This was an opportunity to advance my research on the work of an ¡°informal collective¡± who work with a collection of photographs belonging to Moroccan soldiers, seized by SPLA (Saharawi People¡¯s Liberation Army) over the course of 15 years spent fighting Moroccan forces. In this essay, I conceptualize the relationship between two disparate practices centering around photography¡ªthat of the Saharawi¡¯s political organization, the Front Polisario, and the work undertaken by this informal collective. The latter¡¯s work involves exploring the ontological coordinates of these photographs in a dialogical setting. Besides probing the many resonances between the group¡¯s work and the Polisario¡¯s treatment of the photographs of Moroccans in their possession, this essay is also concerned with the relationship between the conflict and its medial representation
%K Western Sahara conflict
%K image politics
%K gesture
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1750698019836190