Civil Imagination: A Political Ontology of Photography

Civil Imagination: A Political Ontology of Photography

Understanding photography is more than a matter of assessing photographs, writes Ariella Azoulay. The photograph is merely one event in a sequence that constitutes photography and which always involves an actual or potential spectator in the relationship between the photographer and the individual portrayed. The shift in focus from product to practice, outlined in Civil Imagination, brings to light the way images can both reinforce and resist the oppressive reality foisted upon the people depicted.

Through photography, Civil Imagination seeks out relations of partnership, solidarity, and sharing that come into being at the expense of sovereign powers that threaten to destroy them. Azoulay argues that the “civil” must be distinguished from the “political” as the interest that citizens have in themselves, in others, in their shared forms of coexistence, as well as in the world they create and transform. Azoulay’s book sketches out a new horizon of civil living for citizens as well as subjects denied citizenshipâ€”inevitable partners in a reality they are invited to imagine anew and to reconstruct.

Beautifully produced with many illustrations, Civil Imagination is a provocative argument for photography as a civic practice capable of reclaiming civil power.
Country USA
Brand Verso
Manufacturer Verso
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 65 b&w illustrations
Model 65 b&w illustrations
Color Black
ReleaseDate 2015-10-13
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781784783037

Country	USA
Brand	Verso
Manufacturer	Verso
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	65 b&w illustrations
Model	65 b&w illustrations
Color	Black
ReleaseDate	2015-10-13
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781784783037

Civil Imagination: A Political Ontology of Photography

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