Photomediating Together: Collective Photowalks and Photomontage
Presentation Type
Event
Start Date
8-3-2026 1:51 AM
Description
This project examines the photomedia practices of Latin American migrant women in the peri-urban city of Jōsō, Ibaraki, Japan. In Jōsō, 40% of the migrant population is of Latin American origin, primarily from Brazil and Peru. Through the use of photomediated participatory methods, such as photowalks and collaborative photomontages, this work investigates the Latin American presence visible in the city's markets, restaurants, and municipal signage, addressing the lack of research that recognizes the visual practices of the migrant community itself. Photos from the collective photowalks through the city were later turned into pieces for participatory photomontages. By cutting, assembling, and reconfiguring these landscapes, often invisible experiences were shaped, such as language barriers, family separation, precarious work, as well as moments of joy and belonging; materializing affective and lived experience through tactile construction. The resulting photomontages resist linear narratives and the bidimensionality of printed photos, offering instead images not about migrants, but made by and with them, challenging dominant ideas of authorship and shifting attention from precision to the collective construction of meaning. In this way, migrant women are positioned not as passive subjects of visual discourse but as co-authors of complex spatial imaginaries.
Marita Ibañez Sandoval is a visual researcher and educator based in Ibaraki, Japan. Originally from Lima, Peru, she works across photomedia, visual sociology, and visual literacy. Her research explores Latin American migration in Japan through participatory visual methods, including photowalks, photo elicitation, and collective photomontage. She is a PhD candidate (ABD) in the Doctoral Program in Art at the University of Tsukuba, where she also earned an MSc in Kansei Design. She holds a BA in Fine Arts from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) and was a Monbukagakusho Scholar (2018–2024). Her work has been presented in various locations across Latin America, Europe, Japan, Korea, and the United States.
Relational Format
Conference proceeding
Recommended Citation
Sandoval, Marita Ibañez, "Photomediating Together: Collective Photowalks and Photomontage" (2026). Women of Photography: A 24-Hour Conference-a-thon Celebrating International Women’s Day. 4.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/womenofphotography/2026/schedule/4
Photomediating Together: Collective Photowalks and Photomontage
This project examines the photomedia practices of Latin American migrant women in the peri-urban city of Jōsō, Ibaraki, Japan. In Jōsō, 40% of the migrant population is of Latin American origin, primarily from Brazil and Peru. Through the use of photomediated participatory methods, such as photowalks and collaborative photomontages, this work investigates the Latin American presence visible in the city's markets, restaurants, and municipal signage, addressing the lack of research that recognizes the visual practices of the migrant community itself. Photos from the collective photowalks through the city were later turned into pieces for participatory photomontages. By cutting, assembling, and reconfiguring these landscapes, often invisible experiences were shaped, such as language barriers, family separation, precarious work, as well as moments of joy and belonging; materializing affective and lived experience through tactile construction. The resulting photomontages resist linear narratives and the bidimensionality of printed photos, offering instead images not about migrants, but made by and with them, challenging dominant ideas of authorship and shifting attention from precision to the collective construction of meaning. In this way, migrant women are positioned not as passive subjects of visual discourse but as co-authors of complex spatial imaginaries.
Marita Ibañez Sandoval is a visual researcher and educator based in Ibaraki, Japan. Originally from Lima, Peru, she works across photomedia, visual sociology, and visual literacy. Her research explores Latin American migration in Japan through participatory visual methods, including photowalks, photo elicitation, and collective photomontage. She is a PhD candidate (ABD) in the Doctoral Program in Art at the University of Tsukuba, where she also earned an MSc in Kansei Design. She holds a BA in Fine Arts from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) and was a Monbukagakusho Scholar (2018–2024). Her work has been presented in various locations across Latin America, Europe, Japan, Korea, and the United States.