Citizens of Photography: The Camera and the Political Imagination

Citizens of Photography explores how photography offers access to forms of citizenship beyond those available through ordinary politics, highlighting its performative, transformative, and transgressive possibilities. It analyzes photography ranging from family albums to state and public archives, showing how it points to new destinations in the context of social movements, the aftermath of atrocity and civil war, and the legacies of past injustices.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 368 pages
Publication date: 12 September 2023
Publisher: Duke University Press

Citizens of Photography delves into the profound ways in which photography extends the boundaries of citizenship beyond the realm of traditional politics. By undertaking contemporary ethnographic explorations of photographic practice in diverse countries such as Nicaragua, Nigeria, Greece, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Cambodia, the PhotoDemos Collective uncovers the intricate connections between political representation and photographic representation. The authors place great emphasis on photography as a lived practice, recognizing its capacity to facilitate the creation and assertion of new identities. Through a comprehensive analysis of a range of photographic sources, including family albums, social media, state and public archives, the authors demonstrate how photography serves as a compass, pointing to new horizons in the context of social movements, the aftermath of atrocities and civil wars, and the legacies of past injustices. By foregrounding the open-ended and contingent nature of photography and its ability to subvert and reconfigure conventional political identifications, this volume showcases that while photography looks to the past, it also points to the future, acting as a catalyst for social change and transformation.

Citizens of Photography explores how photography offers access to forms of citizenship beyond those available through ordinary politics.

Through contemporary ethnographic investigations of photographic practice in Nicaragua, Nigeria, Greece, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Cambodia, the PhotoDemos Collective traces the resonances between political representation and photographic representation.

The authors emphasize photography as lived practice and how photographys performative, transformative, and transgressive possibilities facilitate the articulation of new identities.

They analyze photography ranging from family albums and social media to state and public archives, showing how it points to new destinations in the context of social movements, the aftermath of atrocity and civil war, and the legacies of past injustices.

By foregrounding photographys open-ended and contingent nature and its ability to subvert and reconfigure conventional political identifications, this volume demonstrates that as much as photography looks to the past, it points to the future, acting in advance of social reality.

Weight: 682g
Dimension: 156 x 228 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781478020769