The nomadic illustration

This article proposes the existence of nomadic illustrations – single images that are repeatedly repurposed and recontextualized. News photographs, stock illustration and photography have been used like this for some time; one stock photograph might illustrate the covers of two different novels; a news photograph may be used by different newspapers to support different arguments. Due to the ease with which images are appropriated online, however, this is no longer solely the province of professionally made images, and when illustrations do migrate they are being reused in a wider range of contexts. By giving examples of nomadic illustrations and tracing their movements between contexts, this article will consider the way in which certain images become associated with particular narratives and look at what might be causing some illustrations to move while others remain stationary.