Photographing Panahíd: Capturing the Shore as a Hybrid Space and Fishing as an Entangled Phenomenon

Abstract

Photographs are both visual and textual sites for philosophizing on spatial realities. In this photo article, we explore the shore as a hybrid space and fishing as an interaction of the permeable and entangled bodies of the human and the more-than-human through the practice of panahìd, a small-scale fishing practice in Miagao, within Panay Island, Philippines. This paper combines my interpretation of photographs with the photographer’s own insights documented through our unstructured and in-depth interview/conversations or pakikipagkuwentuhan. We treat photographs as both visual data and texts that allow us to reflect on the cultural, environmental, and political realities surrounding the Miagao shore and its fishers. Our posthumanist reading of the photographs of panahìd reveals the shore as a hybrid space where ecological and cultural processes are entangled. This challenges conventional and dualist notions of fixed spatial boundaries across bodies and spaces which allows us to reinterpret our lifeworlds specifically as a people of an island. The findings reveal a growing appreciation for small-scale fisheries amid contemporary threats, particularly the construction of seawalls that place an arbitrary rupture along the shoreline. This allows us to reflect on the effect of hard infrastructure in the shared flourishing of humans and nonhumans and the impact of political embankments – both literally and figuratively – over waters. Ultimately, our philosophical reflections offer a perspective on spaces as fluid, which water particularly embodies, captured and treasured in photographs.