Lampedusa – Image Stories from the Edge of Europe

‘Lampedusa – Image Stories from the Edge of Europe’ is a photo-graphic novel edited by the German publishing house Spector Books Verlag Leipzig and developed by a group of international professionals from different backgrounds named Migrant Image Research Group. The publication summarizes a research project on the media coverage of the phenomenon of migration on multiple levels around the Mediterranean Sea– an inquiry into the use, the economics and politics of images. The book reflects on how the phenomenon is communicated. Although the dynamics of migration have changed over the last 10 years due to precarious social, economic and political situations of the departure countries, in the media the readers seem to be fairly accustomed to images of migrants in distress at sea, to a single and stereotypical representation that depicts people in overcrowded boats as a threat to Europe, or stages them in the role of the victim of a dysfunctional immigration system. Since November 2010, under the initial direction of artist and photographer Armin Linke, Migrant Image Research group has conducted interviews on site, in Lampedusa, taking on the role of field researchers and talking to those directly involved with the events on the island as state organizations, service companies, photo journalists, local initiatives, NGOs, residents, artists, and the migrants themselves, all of whom use photography to create narratives of these events.