Walking Together: Sense/Thinking Photowalks With Latin American Migrants in Japan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21814/vista.7171Keywords:
photowalks, multisensory sensibility, Latin American migrants, participatory visual methods, landscapeAbstract
This article investigates how collective photowalks with Latin American migrants in Jōsō, Japan, activate multisensory and relational modes of perceiving the urban-rural environment. Sensibility is conceptualized as embodied, situated, and deeply intertwined with the histories and everyday practices of migrants. Rather than centering exclusively on photographic images, the analysis focuses on the perceptual, conversational, and affective processes that emerge during group walks, such as negotiating routes, pausing at multilingual signs, observing storefront textures, sharing memories, and commenting on seasonal atmospheres. This study is grounded in a practice-led visual methodology developed through extensive fieldwork and ongoing collaboration with Latin American migrant communities in Jōsō. From 2021 to 2023, both solo and collective photowalks were conducted with migrants from Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Ecuador, and Paraguay. The adoption of analog photography decelerated the image-making process, emphasizing attentiveness, embodied rhythms, and the temporalities of waiting. Walking functioned as a site of shared perception, supporting participants to contribute diverse linguistic, cultural, and sensory repertoires that reshaped interpretations and discussions of the landscape. The article contends that collective photowalks foster situated, co-created modes of perceiving place. These practices demonstrate how migrant communities inhabit, negotiate, and reinterpret Japanese landscapes through multisensory encounters that extend beyond visual representation.
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