CENTRE for LATIN AMERICAN
RESEARCH and DOCUMENTATION
CENTRE for LATIN AMERICAN
RESEARCH and DOCUMENTATION
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CENTRE for LATIN AMERICAN
RESEARCH and DOCUMENTATION
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PHOTOVOICE
PROJECTS
PhD research
Isabelle Mollinger:
working with photovoice
in Moravia and La Carpio
This PhD research explores how new configurations of social fabric emerge in two self-built neighborhoods in Latin America: Moravia in Medellín, Colombia, and La Carpio in San José, Costa Rica. By centralizing the lived experiences of newcomer migrants in each neighborhood and using the participatory method of photovoice, the project investigates how people document, interpret, and reshape their everyday environments while settling into peripheral urban areas.
Photovoice is a powerful, community-based approach that enables participants to share their perspectives through photography. In Moravia, fourteen Venezuelan migrants living across different sectors collaborated in the project between January and June 2024, capturing the essence of their daily lives in a place many could temporarily call home. In La Carpio, a diverse group of newcomer inhabitants began contributing to the project from January to June 2025, reflecting the ongoing dynamics of migration in the neighborhood.
Through the photovoice process, participants in both field sites documented their challenges, aspirations, and reflections on their new living circumstances. Their images reveal the layers of their migration journeys, including moments of comfort and discomfort, personal memories, cultural dissonances, and scenes of beauty or tension. Each photograph serves as a visual narrative that makes visible the complexities of adapting to life in a new environment while holding onto memories, identities, and practices from elsewhere. Even photos that do not seem to contain much visual information can elicit verbal explanations about everyday life, and bring narratives to the table that would have not been told in one off interviews.
Beyond showcasing everyday life in Moravia and La Carpio, this research contributes to broader discussions on migration, identity, and social fabric in self-built neighborhoods in Latin American cities. Photovoice offers a platform where participants’ voices become visible and audible, encouraging dialogue within and between communities. By involving newcomer residents directly, the approach highlights the importance of developing grounded theory that departs from their experiences in the further scientific analysis of both cases.
The exhibitions in each neighborhood have invited viewers to engage thoughtfully with these narratives and to reflect on the universal themes of forced displacement and belonging. In Moravia, the exhibition took place throughout June 2024 at the Centre for Cultural Development, with the aim of fostering empathy, bridging cultural gaps, and deepening understanding of the layered experiences of newcomer migrants. In La Carpio, the exhibition has been ongoing since June 2025 up to the present (November 2025).
The complete collection, bringing together the photographic work from both Moravia and La Carpio, will be showcased in Amsterdam in 2026.
