Through the Lens of a Camera: Photojournalism and the Crises of Zimbabwe’s “Second Republic”

Abstract

This paper explores the role of photojournalism in mediating Zimbabwe’s crises in the “Second Republic”. It uses the case study of Auntony Zinyange’s photographs to examine the use of photographs to portray the “Second Republic”. While photographs are credited for being “authentic”, “factual” and “record undisputed evidence”, this study, informed by the constructionist approach in photography, argues that photographs are a construct and the vision/reality they bear is selective and coded. Therefore, the study argues that photographs are used to “stipulate” and produce discourses on the Zimbabwean crises in the “Second Republic” with the aim of structuring power relations. Using visual discourse analysis as a method of analysis, which arguably presents a holistic analysis of photographs, the study found that the “Second Republic” is portrayed as having shattered people’s dreams. Resultantly, the country is framed as having changed the driver while the old car has remained the same. Zimbabwe is witnessing a “change without change”.

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