| Sumario: | The idea that images can be understood beyond the purely visual has received limited attention, particularly in protest studies, where events are often examined through performative and media-centred frameworks. However, some scholars argue that images can also emerge from lived experience in non-material forms. Rather than viewing them as internal responses to sensory input, this study conceptualises images as symbolic, emotional, and narrative constructions rooted in memory and embodied perception ([Belting, H. 2007. Antropología de la imagen. Buenos Aires: Katz; Tisseron, S. 2000. El Misterio de la cámara lúcida : fotografía e inconsciente [The mystery of the Camera Lucida: Photography and the unconscious]. Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca]). Focusing on participants' experiences during Chile's 2019 Popular Revolt, the article explores how certain episodes in Valparaíso are recalled and described as 'lost places', drawing on Hans Belting's notion. Using a qualitative methodology – including life histories, focus groups, cartographies, field notes, and walking interviews – the study identifies several types of mental images shaped by memory, affect, and spatial experience. These include engagements with photography, digital interaction, historical memory, urban transformation, bodily awareness, the surreal nature of the events, and even the absence of imagery itself. The findings suggest that such images operate as a form of visibility grounded in consciousness and subjectivity, offering new insight into how people process and inhabit sociopolitical experience.
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