This thesis for the Master's degree in Peace Studies at the University of Innsbruck looks at the role of photojournalists in peacebuilding, and their potential role as peace workers. The importance of this research lies in putting the human beings behind the photographs that have changed the history of humanity at the center.
The question about art as a tool for peacebuilding has been approached mainly from a casuistic and qualitative approach. The question about its transformative power in armed conflict scenarios and its potential in the path of reconciliation has gained strength and suggests the possibility of remembering and changing, re-signifying, moving, and connecting with our humanity, with the sense that we are, beyond differences (Lederach, 2005). Arts have been conceived as artifacts of memory, and even as evidence of the barbarity of war. Photography has been understood as a repository of reality, as a social document, or as a narrative and psychotherapeutic act. Susan Sontag (1977) understands it as an act of appropriation subscribed to a specific frame, framed by the photographer. However, when approaching photographers from an academic research point of view, their work, the photographed, is analyzed, little or nothing is inquired about their humanity. In that path in which subjectivity goes unnoticed, so does the impact that their work has on themselves. This thesis approaches photojournalists to hear from their own voices what does it mean to constantly witness the pain of others.
Their life stories have been approached through interviews and secondary sources. It allowed me to observe firsthand the impact of their profession on them, as well as their coping mechanisms, and their potential to be peace workers. There is a clear possibility for photojournalists to be key actors in peacebuilding processes and provide visual tools for conflict transformation. Their role depends on their decision to influence public opinion with their work while also listening to others' pain and taking care of themselves.