This essay examines the political uses of photography in the protests of the Tamil families of the disappeared in northern Sri Lanka. Enforced disappearances have long featured as an instrument of state terror. Their lingering effects have been noted as a significant challenge to transitional justice processes in the aftermath of the island's civil war. By examining how protesters make their political demands and grievances known through photography, I explore the tensions between visibility and surveillance. The competing photographies of the protests subvert conceptual understandings of the medium as an ideological tool, but also complicate claims of its capacities for enabling emancipation. Against a backdrop of ethno-nationalist conflict, this mobilization of and through photography serves as a defiant articulation of post-war ‘irreconciliation’. It is further tethered to a global visual vernacular of civilian resistance challenging state atrocity, as well as irreconcilable assertions of nation and state.

中文翻译：

---

技术色彩的缺席：抗议斯里兰卡北部的强迫失踪

本文探讨了摄影在斯里兰卡北部失踪者泰米尔家庭抗议活动中的政治用途。强迫失踪长期以来一直是国家恐怖的工具。其挥之不去的影响被认为是该岛内战后对过渡司法进程的重大挑战。通过研究抗议者如何通过摄影表达他们的政治诉求和不满，我探讨了可见性和监视之间的紧张关系。抗议活动的竞争照片颠覆了对媒介作为意识形态工具的概念理解，但也使关于其能够实现解放的能力的主张复杂化。在民族主义冲突的背景下，这种通过摄影进行的动员是对战后“不和解”的挑衅性表达。它进一步与全球视觉白话相联系，即平民抵抗挑战国家暴行，以及民族和国家不可调和的主张。