The performative potential of ethnographic photography: a weapon against social injustices?

Abstract

This photographic essay illustrates the performative potential of ethnographic photography as an instrument of awareness and transformation of reality. The images denounce the living and working exploitation suffered by Haitian sugar cane cutters and their families in the bateyes of the Dominican Republic. These are images that the United States Department of Labor (USDOL) has considered as documentary evidence for an investigation regarding labor rights that the CAFTA-RD Free Trade Agreement in force between the two countries is required to guarantee. Thanks also to these shots, the Dominican government and local sugar companies have begun an improvement process in the plantations.