Selfies at the border: a terror management reading

Abstract

This article investigates selfies as a cultural practice, examining the innate agency in selfie taking, positioning selfies as a form of resistance. The analysis considers the way Syrian refugees are framing themselves and are being framed, in a variety of photographic images depicting “Europe’s migration crisis” (Crawley and Skleparis). Through an application of Ernest Becker’s discourse on the ‘terror of death’, which is the basis of the social psychology concept of terror management theory, the research asserts the significance of participation and composition in selfies. It questions both literal and conceptual framings of these images and interrogates the ethics of recognisability and response in relation to the multiple frames of conception through which we view and interpret human life.