Synopses & Reviews
In this groundbreaking work, Ariella Azoulay provides a compelling rethinking of the political and ethical status of photography. In her extraordinary account of the "civil contract" of photography, she thoroughly revises our understanding of the power relations that sustain and make possible photographic meanings. Photography, she insists, must be thought of and understood in its inseparability from the many catastrophes of recent history.
Azoulay argues that photography is a particular set of relations between individuals to the power that governs them, and, at the same time, a form of relations among equal individuals that constrains this power. Her book shows how anyone, even a stateless person, who addresses others through photographs or occupies the position of a photograph's addressee, is or can become a citizen in the citizenry of photography. The civil contract of photography enables him or her to share with others the claim made or addressed by the photograph.
But the crucial arguments of the book concern two groups whose vulnerability and flawed citizenship have been rendered invisible due to their state of exception: the Palestinian noncitizens of Israel and women in Western societies. What they share is an exposure to injuries of various kinds and the impossibility of photographic statements of their plight from ever becoming claims of emergency and calls for protection. Thus one of her leading questions is the following: Under what legal, political or cultural conditions does it become possible to see and to show disaster that befalls those flawed citizens in states of exception?
The book brilliantly examines key texts in the history of modern citizenship, such as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, together with relevant works by Giorgio Agamben, Hannah Arendt, Olympe de Gouges, and Jean-François Lyotard; it rigorously analyzes Israeli photographs of violent episodes in the Occupied Territories—work by Miki Kratsman, Michal Heiman, and Aïm Deüelle Lüski—and it interpretively engages photographs of women from those of Muybridge to recent images from Abu Ghraib prison. At the same time Azoulay provides new critical perspectives on well-known texts such as Susan Sontag's Regarding the Pain of Others and Roland Barthes's Camera Lucida.
The Civil Contract of Photography is an essential work for anyone seeking to understand the disasters of recent history and the consequences of how these events and their victims have been represented. Azoulay charts new intellectual and political pathways in this unprecedented exploration of the visual field of catastrophe, injustice, and suffering in our time.
Review
Ariella Azoulay teaches visual culture and contemporary philosophy at the Program for Culture and Interpretation, Bar Ilan University. She is the author of Once Upon A Time: Photography Following Walter Benjamin and Death's Showcase: The Power of Image in Contemporary Democracy (MIT Press, 2001).
"The Civil Contract of Photography considers the crucial role of photographs in the making and unmaking of citizens. Azoulay situates photography within the context of political theory, challenging Susan Sontag's important work on photography and war. For Azoulay, the photograph of politically induced suffering makes an appeal to rights and constitutes an emergency demand. The text works with an array of photographs that make urgent appeals, marshalling autobiographical, political, and theoretical perspectives to establish the role of the photograph in creating the visual space for politics. This is a moving, urgent, and thoughtful work."---Judith Butler, author of Precarious Life: Powers of Violence and Mourning --Judith Butler
Review
andquot;The Civil Contract of Photography considers the crucial role of photographs in the making and unmaking of citizens. Azoulay situates photography within the context of political theory, challenging Susan Sontag's important work on photography and war. For Azoulay, the photograph of politically induced suffering makes an appeal to rights and constitutes an emergency demand. The text works with an array of photographs that make urgent appeals, marshalling autobiographical, political, and theoretical perspectives to establish the role of the photograph in creating the visual space for politics. This is a moving, urgent, and thoughtful work.andquot;
andmdash;Judith Butler, author of Precarious Life: Powers of Violence and Mourning
Review
"Ariella Azoulay makes a simple and profound claim. Every photograph bears the traces of the encounter between the photographer and the photographed, and neither party can ultimately control that inscription nor determine what happens to those traces. The photograph, she tells us, fixes nothing and belongs to no one. This untethering of photography from responsibility, at least in its traditional sense, allows her to approach the ethics and politics specific to photography in a completely new way. Even or especially when it is a photograph of a crime or an injustice, a photograph is more than evidence. It imposes another sort of obligation on us, to address and readdress it in a way that challenges what it shows of our life together. Azoulay's breathtaking book finally demands nothing less of us than to reimagine how, in the age of the photograph, we might become citizens again." Thomas Keenan , Human Rights Program, Bard College Thomas Keenan
Review
"... Azoulay’s central themes—state violence, violations of human rights, and the nature and potential of photographic witness—are as relevant to our own political circumstances as they are to hers."
— Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Art in America"... this is a significant, deeply moral book that should undercut complacent thinking. Azoulay's renewal of cultural attention to the state and her view of photography that requires us to dispute prevailing interpretations of evidence must surely be welcomed as we are, once again, thrown headlong back to reality."
— Steve Edwards, Times Higher Education"The Civil Contract of Photography considers the crucial role of photographs in the making and unmaking of citizens. Azoulay situates photography within the context of political theory, challenging Susan Sontag's important work on photography and war. For Azoulay, the photograph of politically induced suffering makes an appeal to rights and constitutes an emergency demand. The text works with an array of photographs that make urgent appeals, marshalling autobiographical, political, and theoretical perspectives to establish the role of the photograph in creating the visual space for politics. This is a moving, urgent, and thoughtful work."
—Judith Butler, author of Precarious Life: Powers of Violence and Mourning"Ariella Azoulay makes a simple and profound claim. Every photograph bears the traces of the encounter between the photographer and the photographed, and neither party can ultimately control that inscription nor determine what happens to those traces. The photograph, she tells us, fixes nothing and belongs to no one. This untethering of photography from responsibility, at least in its traditional sense, allows her to approach the ethics and politics specific to photography in a completely new way. Even or especially when it is a photograph of a crime or an injustice, a photograph is more than evidence. It imposes another sort of obligation on us, to address and readdress it in a way that challenges what it shows of our life together. Azoulay's breathtaking book finally demands nothing less of us than to reimagine how, in the age of the photograph, we might become citizens again."
—Thomas Keenan, Human Rights Program, Bard College
Review
"... Azoulay's central themes -- state violence, violations of human rights, and the nature and potential of photographic witness -- are as relevant to our own political circumstances as they are to hers." Abigail Solomon-Godeau Art in America Zone Books
Review
"... this is a significant, deeply moral book that should undercut complacent thinking. Azoulay's renewal of cultural attention to the state and her view of photography that requires us to dispute prevailing interpretations of evidence must surely be welcomed as we are, once again, thrown headlong back to reality." Steve Edwards Times Higher Education Zone Books
Review
andlt;Pandgt;andquot;Ariella Azoulay makes a simple and profound claim. Every photograph bears the traces of the encounter between the photographer and the photographed, and neither party can ultimately control that inscription nor determine what happens to those traces. The photograph, she tells us, fixes nothing and belongs to no one. This untethering of photography from responsibility, at least in its traditional sense, allows her to approach the ethics and politics specific to photography in a completely new way. Even or especially when it is a photograph of a crime or an injustice, a photograph is more than evidence. It imposes another sort of obligation on us, to address and readdress it in a way that challenges what it shows of our life together. Azoulay's breathtaking book finally demands nothing less of us than to reimagine how, in the age of the photograph, we might become citizens again.andquot;--- Thomas Keenan, Human Rights Program, Bard Collegeandlt;/Pandgt; Zone Books Zone Books Thomas Keenan
Review
andlt;Pandgt;"Ariella Azoulay makes a simple and profound claim. Every photograph bears the traces of the encounter between the photographer and the photographed, and neither party can ultimately control that inscription nor determine what happens to those traces. The photograph, she tells us, fixes nothing and belongs to no one. This untethering of photography from responsibility, at least in its traditional sense, allows her to approach the ethics and politics specific to photography in a completely new way. Even or especially when it is a photograph of a crime or an injustice, a photograph is more than evidence. It imposes another sort of obligation on us, to address and readdress it in a way that challenges what it shows of our life together. Azoulay's breathtaking book finally demands nothing less of us than to reimagine how, in the age of the photograph, we might become citizens again." andlt;Bandgt;Thomas Keenan andlt;/Bandgt;, Human Rights Program, Bard College andlt;/Pandgt; Zone Books
Review
andlt;Pandgt;"... Azoulay's central themes -- state violence, violations of human rights, and the nature and potential of photographic witness -- are as relevant to our own political circumstances as they are to hers." Abigail Solomon-Godeau Art in Americaandlt;/Pandgt; Zone Books
Review
andlt;Pandgt;"... this is a significant, deeply moral book that should undercut complacent thinking. Azoulay's renewal of cultural attention to the state and her view of photography that requires us to dispute prevailing interpretations of evidence must surely be welcomed as we are, once again, thrown headlong back to reality." Steve Edwards Times Higher Educationandlt;/Pandgt;
Synopsis
In this compelling work, Ariella Azoulay reconsiders the political and ethical status of photography. Describing the power relations that sustain and make possible photographic meanings, Azoulay argues that anyone -- even a stateless person -- who addresses others through photographs or is addressed by photographs can become a member of the citizenry of photography. The civil contract of photography enables anyone to pursue political agency and resistance through photography. Photography, Azoulay insists, cannot be understood separately from the many catastrophes of recent history. The crucial arguments of her book concern two groups with flawed or nonexistent citizenship: the Palestinian noncitizens of Israel and women in Western societies. Azoulay analyzes Israeli press photographs of violent episodes in the Occupied Territories, and interprets various photographs of women -- from famous images by stop-motion photographer Eadweard Muybridge to photographs from Abu Ghraib prison. Azoulay asks this question: under what legal, political, or cultural conditions does it become possible to see and to show disaster that befalls those who can claim only incomplete or nonexistent citizenship? Drawing on such key texts in the history of modern citizenship as the Declaration of the Rights of Man together with relevant work by Giorgio Agamben, Jean-François Lyotard, Susan Sontag, and Roland Barthes, Azoulay explores the visual field of catastrophe, injustice, and suffering in our time. Her book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the disasters of recent history -- and the consequences of how these events and their victims have been represented.
Synopsis
An account of the power relations that sustain and make possible photographic meanings, with special attention to photographs of Palestinian noncitizens of Israel and women in Western societies.
Synopsis
In this groundbreaking work, Ariella Azoulay provides a compelling rethinking of the political and ethical status of photography. In her extraordinary account of the civil contract of photography, she thoroughly revises our understanding of the power relations that sustain and make possible photographic meanings. Photography, she insists, must be thought of and understood in its inseparability from the many catastrophes of recent history.
Synopsis
andlt;Pandgt;An account of the power relations that sustain and make possible photographic meanings, with special attention to photographs of Palestinian noncitizens of Israel and women in Western societies.andlt;/Pandgt;
Synopsis
andlt;Pandgt;In this compelling work, Ariella Azoulay reconsiders the political and ethical status of photography. Describing what she calls andquot;the civil contract of photography,andquot; she gives an account of the power relations that sustain and make possible photographic meanings. Azoulay argues that anyone--even a stateless person--who addresses others through photographs or is addressed by photographs, can become a member of the citizenry of photography. The civil contract of photography enables anyone to pursue political agency and resistance through photography. Photography, Azoulay insists, cannot be understood separately from the many catastrophes of recent history. The crucial arguments of her book concern two groups with flawed or nonexistent citizenship: the Palestinian noncitizens of Israel and women in Western societies. Azoulay analyzes Israeli press photographs of violent episodes in the Occupied Territories, and interprets various photographs of women--from famous images by stop-motion photographer Eadweard Muybridge to recent photographs from Abu Ghraib prison. Azoulay asks the question: under what legal, political, or cultural conditions does it become possible to see and to show disaster that befalls those who can claim only incomplete or nonexistent citizenship? Drawing on such key texts in the history of modern citizenship as the Declaration of the Rights of Man together with relevant work by Giorgio Agamben, Jean-François Lyotard, Susan Sontag, and Roland Barthes, Azoulay explores the visual field of catastrophe, injustice, and suffering in our time. Her book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the disasters of recent history--and the consequences of how these events and their victims have been represented.andlt;/Pandgt;
Synopsis
An argument that anyone can pursue political agency and resistance through photography, even those with flawed or nonexistent citizenship.
Synopsis
andlt;Pandgt;An argument that anyone can pursue political agency and resistance through photography, even those with flawed or nonexistent citizenship.andlt;/Pandgt;
Synopsis
Liam Kennedy here takes as his focus the ways in which selected photographers have sought to frame the activities and effects of American foreign policy, often with a critical perspective, and how their work engages the dynamics of power and knowledge that attend the American worldview.and#160; What is at issue in this book is understanding relations between the geopolitical conditions of visuality and the particulars of the image.and#160; andldquo;Conditions of visuality,andrdquo; for Kennedy, are the ideologies that determine certain ways of seeing, that support actions and representations which establish (in)visibilities and which police the relationship between seeing and believing the American worldview.and#160; The individual photographers whose work Kennedy so insightfully dissects are those who have pushed the boundaries of photographic practice and who reflect critically on the contexts and scenery of war:and#160; Larry Burrows and Philip Jones Griffiths in Vietnam, Gilles Peress covering the Iranian Revolution, Susan Meiselas in El Salvador and Nicaragua, Ron Haviv and Gary Knight in the Balkans, Ashley Gilbertson and Chris Hondros in Iraq, and Tim Hetherington and Lynsey Addario in Afghanistan.and#160; These individuals expanded the conception and technical repertoire of photojournalism, receiving critical acclaim, provoking public and professional controversy, and often incurring great personal cost to themselves.and#160; Afterimages presents us with a revisionary understanding of the art of conflict photography.and#160; The images are often searingandmdash;they sometimes demonize and dehumanize the enemy, but also humanize friend or victim:and#160; a focus on the human roots the range of feeling in such imagery, from horror to pity.
Synopsis
In 2005, photographer Chris Hondros captured a striking image of a young Iraqi girl in the aftermath of the killing of her parents by American soldiers. The shot stunned the world and has since become iconicandmdash;comparable to the infamous photo by Nick Ut of a Vietnamese girl running from a napalm attack. Both images serve as microcosms for their respective conflicts.
Afterimages looks at the work of war photographers like Hondros and Ut to understand how photojournalism interacts with the American worldview.
Liam Kennedy here maps the evolving relations between the American way of war and photographic coverage of it. Organized in its first section around key US military actions over the last fifty years, the book then moves on to examine how photographers engaged with these conflicts on wider ethical and political grounds, and finally on to the genre of photojournalism itself. Illustrated throughout with examples of the photographs being considered, Afterimages argues that photographs are important means for critical reflection on war, violence, and human rights. It goes on to analyze the high ethical, sociopolitical, and legalistic value we place on the still imageandrsquo;s ability to bear witness and stimulate action.
About the Author
Ariella Azoulay teaches visual culture and contemporary philosophy at the Program for Culture and Interpretation, Bar Ilan University. She is the author of Once Upon A Time: Photography Following Walter Benjamin and Death's Showcase: The Power of Image in Contemporary Democracy, winner of the 2002 Infinity Award for Writing presented by the International Center for Photography for excellence in the field of photography (MIT Press, 2001).
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
Introduction: andldquo;Follow the Americansandrdquo;
1 Compassion and Critique: Vietnam
2 Pictures from Revolutions: Iran, Nicaragua, El Salvador
3 Unseen Wars and Humanitarian Visions: Somalia, the Gulf, the Balkans
4 Visualizing the War on Terror: Iraq, Afghanistan, the United States
Conclusion: The Costs of War
Notes
Index