Azoulay uses Laub's work to illustrate the civil contract of photography because of the way Azoulay feels the images read. Laub's photographs are described as having the ability to offer the viewer clues surrounding the subject or subjects that inform the viewer in a way that causes some sort of connection. The use of pairings of subjects that look similar causes the viewer to further more enter the images and notice more closely the subjects differences. The photographs showing the victims who narrowly escaped death that are physically wearing marks of the event they faced pull the subject out of the political arena and sets them in a more humanitarian place. A position that is more so looking at the idea of life and death as opposed to class or culture or religion. The text used in the series written by the subjects is Laub's attempt of defining the affected group instead of using it to divide the two sides of the conflict. This way of thinking is how Azoulay sees the civil contract functioning in a way where the viewer can engage with the subjects in the images without being bombarded with the push and pull of perhaps taking one side of the conflict as right or wrong. A way in which the viewer can "watch" to understand this is what the subjects are going through right now instead of "looking" at the photograph and only responding to the theatricality of an image that is blatantly assigning protagonist and antagonist.
Reinhardt's essay beings with the idea that images of violence and people in despair rarely achieve their aim. Photographs are rare to incite enough response that physical things are done to benefit the subjects or situation in the photographs. Its so amazing how in the beginning Reinhardt lists off a serious of phrases that load a specific memory of a photograph that is representative and unforgettable of recent suffering.
About the Abu Ghraib photograph it is interesting to think about the uses of such images and by who. It is discussed that by showing some one being tortured it is causing a perpetuation of humiliation but at the same time if the person in the photograph decides to reveal themselves then the image become iconic of what they experienced. How ever with the man who did come forward that was not the real person in the famous photograph, he still was able to capitalize on the power of that image.
Very powerful Katrina image. Why do you think they are waving flags? How might that idea relate to Azoulay and notions of citizenship and the state?
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