Counter-forensics and the geographies of images

Bea Abbott, Nick Lally

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Counter-forensics emerged in order to deploy scientific investigative techniques usually wielded by the state against the state. In this article, we theorize how a counter-forensic approach can inform geographical approaches to the study of images. Our counter-forensic approach centers the material and semantic instability of images and highlights the indeterminacy of meaning and thus, the importance of the discursive activity of articulating the relationship between images and political claims. The article offers two case studies that deploy this approach. The first engages with cell phone images made by migrants at sea, showing how they can be read as evidence of the broader spatial politics of Europe’s external borders. The second case study examines the materiality of ultrasound technologies in relation to the changing legal terrain of abortion politics in the United States. Both studies use images as openings to intervene in contested politics that are part of the production of uneven geographies of state domination and control.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)51-69
Number of pages19
JournalEnvironment and Planning D: Society and Space
Volume43
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.

Keywords

  • Critical forensics
  • borders
  • evidence
  • images
  • ultrasound

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • Environmental Science (miscellaneous)

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