PHOTOGRAPHY AS A WAY TO EXPLORE THE CHANGES IN FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AND SELF-PERCEPTION OF REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS

Abstract

At first glance, psychology and photography seem to have nothing in common. However, they are connected by receptive boundaries, the transmission of emotions, the depth of the image, and perception. Photography helps to evaluate and better understand a person. Psychology and photography offer us a different perspective on both the world and ourselves. Thus, the aim of this paper is to demonstrate the cognitive link where they come together, to analyze the formation of an alliance between psychology and photography to study photography as a way to investigate changes in facial expressions and self-perception of refugees and migrants, to provide a literature review on the relationship between psychology and photography, and to explore the issue of emotion as a component of self-perception. By introducing each of these disciplines, we will focus on their interconnection: psychology is dedicated to the study of behavior, cognition and affect, while photography is a procedure or technique that allows obtaining still images of reality by the action of light on a sensitive surface or sensor and a complete representation and description of the object. On the one hand, a psychologist dives into the inner world of other people to intervene or explore various processes, and a photographer illustrates a person’s emotion at the moment of taking a photo. Although the photographer may not always be able to capture other people’s expressions or emotions, he or she never ceases to be confronted with human tragedy. The same thing happens to a psychologist, albeit on a different level. In both psychology and photography, there is an effect of emotional transmission. The image of a person generates, transports and inspires. In addition, the image contains representations, symbols or images that arise from the work of each profession. The results of the study of changes in the facial expressions and self-perception of refugees and migrants indicate the presence of a cognitive element. Each photo contains a non-verbal language that is interpreted by everyone in the same way and without mistakes during the most tragic event – the war in Ukraine.