The Photoshop State: Image Manipulation, Visual Culture, and Electoral Politics in Digital India

• In Event: Reorienting Digital Media Studies: Global and Comparative Perspectives

Abstract

President Obama watching a telecast of the then-prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's speech, G-6 leaders bowing in deference to the chief minister of a South Indian state – these are some of the images that have gone 'viral' on online social networks in India and amidst the Indian diaspora worldwide over the last few years. Created using a variety of image manipulation software, these 'Photoshopped' images have repeatedly been put into circulation as 'proof' for a series of claims relating to Indian political leaders' appeal, integrity or importance on a 'global' scale. This paper critically evaluates these images and the discourses generated around them online, and draws on ethnographic fieldwork done with Photoshop operators in Chennai, India to chart the development of a rich intertextual field based on visual/mimetic representations of long-standing political debates. In doing so, the paper seeks to argue that these 'new' visualities help unpack the temporal tensions underpinning the mediation of contemporary politics on digital networks worldwide.

Author

• Sriram Mohan, U of Michigan