Citizens of Photography
The Camera and the Political Imagination
Published on 15. September 2023
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-1-4780-2000-4 (ISBN)
Description
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 photography's 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 photography's 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.
Reviews / Votes
"Ambitious in its theoretical and ethnographic reach, this vital volume robustly explores the unruly political potentialities of photography while laying out multiple directions for a future anthropology of photography. Citizens of Photography is a landmark book." - Karen Strassler, author of (Demanding Images: Democracy, Mediation, and the Image-Event in Indonesia) "Citizens of Photography is a coherent whole. It is both a theoretical and participant-observational work in anthropology, and thankfully, the latter does not get trumped by the former. The volume would be accessible to a variety of disciplinary orientations, and the chapters work in tandem or for stand-alone use in undergraduate or graduate courses. In short, Citizens of Photography is a welcome addition to any cannon related to media, visual, or political anthropology." - Leighton C. Peterson (Visual Communication Quarterly) "For the careful reader, untold stories of unknown photographers and cultural tropes emerge that reveal worlds of photographic and ethnographic practice from many countries often ignored by Anglo-American historians. How do other cultures use photography? This volume answers this question and analyzes the results. Recommended. General readers through faculty." - R. Hackemann (Choice)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
North Carolina
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
156 color illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
839 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4780-2000-4 (9781478020004)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Christopher Pinney is Professor of Anthropology and Visual Culture at University College London and author of The Waterless Sea: A Curious History of Mirages.
Naluwembe Binaisa researches mobilities, belonging, and citizenship within Africa.
Vindhya Buthpitiya is Associate Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews.
Konstantinos Kalantzis is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Thessaly.
Ileana L. Selejan is Lecturer in Art History, Culture, and Society at the University of Edinburgh.
Sokphea Young is an honorary Research Fellow at University College London.
Naluwembe Binaisa researches mobilities, belonging, and citizenship within Africa.
Vindhya Buthpitiya is Associate Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews.
Konstantinos Kalantzis is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Thessaly.
Ileana L. Selejan is Lecturer in Art History, Culture, and Society at the University of Edinburgh.
Sokphea Young is an honorary Research Fellow at University College London.
Content
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction. Photographing; or, the Future of the Image / Christopher Pinney 1
1. "The Truth Is in the Soil"-The Political Work of Photography in Northern Sri Lanka / Vidhya Buthpitiya 63
2. Visual Citizenship in Cambodia-From Apocalypse to Visual "Political Emancipation" / Sokphea Young 111
3. Photography, Citizenship, and Accusatory Memory in the Greek Crisis / Konstantinos Kalantzis 150
4. Insurgent Archive-The Photographic Making and Unmaking of the Nicaraguan Revolutionary State / Ileana L. Selejan 192
5. "We Are Moving with Technology"-Photographing Voice and Belonging in Nigeria / Naluwembe Binaisa 234
6. Citizenship, Contingency, and Futurity-Photographic Ethnographies from Nepal, India, and Bangladesh / Christopher Pinney 273
Bibliography 319
Contributors 337
Index 339
Introduction. Photographing; or, the Future of the Image / Christopher Pinney 1
1. "The Truth Is in the Soil"-The Political Work of Photography in Northern Sri Lanka / Vidhya Buthpitiya 63
2. Visual Citizenship in Cambodia-From Apocalypse to Visual "Political Emancipation" / Sokphea Young 111
3. Photography, Citizenship, and Accusatory Memory in the Greek Crisis / Konstantinos Kalantzis 150
4. Insurgent Archive-The Photographic Making and Unmaking of the Nicaraguan Revolutionary State / Ileana L. Selejan 192
5. "We Are Moving with Technology"-Photographing Voice and Belonging in Nigeria / Naluwembe Binaisa 234
6. Citizenship, Contingency, and Futurity-Photographic Ethnographies from Nepal, India, and Bangladesh / Christopher Pinney 273
Bibliography 319
Contributors 337
Index 339