The paper discusses a variety of ‘theaters’ of suffering; ‘theater’ being understood here in a metaphorical sense. By analyzing imageries used in the media taken at various unofficial migrant camps and other public spaces in France, and at reception and detention centers in Finland, the paper first interrogates the processes of production and using the aesthetics of suffering as well as the politics of the body that emerges. In the mediatized theatres of suffering human bodies are aestheticized, categorized and ranked in ways that diminish the space for human agency. For example, the corporeal forms of mundane and miniscule resistance are left unobserved. Then the paper turns to its main focus: it shows that there are alternative forms of aesthetics that seek to tackle with the ‘intolerables’ and traumatized bodies, and yet contribute to agency. In these artful practices, which include ethnographic and emancipatory photography, the researcher/photographer engages others globally and locally, and seeks to intervene into public life and political development.
