Civil Imagination

A Political Ontology of Photography

Nonfiction, Art & Architecture, General Art, Criticism, Photography
Cover of the book Civil Imagination by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, Verso Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Ariella Aïsha Azoulay ISBN: 9781784783020
Publisher: Verso Books Publication: October 13, 2015
Imprint: Verso Language: English
Author: Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
ISBN: 9781784783020
Publisher: Verso Books
Publication: October 13, 2015
Imprint: Verso
Language: English

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 citizenship—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.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

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 citizenship—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.

More books from Verso Books

Cover of the book A Companion to Marx's Capital by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Cover of the book Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell) by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Cover of the book American Foreign Policy and Its Thinkers by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Cover of the book Enforcing Normalcy by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Cover of the book Frantz Fanon by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Cover of the book Strike for America by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Cover of the book Peasant-Citizen and Slave by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Cover of the book Minima Moralia by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Cover of the book Cities Under Siege by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Cover of the book Screened Out by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Cover of the book My First Life by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Cover of the book Mongrel Firebugs and Men of Property by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Cover of the book Adorno, Foucault and the Critique of the West by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Cover of the book The Notebook by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
Cover of the book The Ministry of Nostalgia by Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy