Ariella Azoulay’s “The Civil Contract of Photography”: The Image as an Ethical Summons
Not traditional aesthetic criticism, but photography as political philosophy: demanding the spectator respond to the vulnerability of others with a “civil gaze” and rebuilding an ethical framework outside of state sovereignty.
In 2008, the Israeli-American scholar Ariella Aïsha Azoulay published The Civil Contract of Photography. Within the context of war, occupation, and disaster imagery, she posits the core thesis that “photography is an ethical-political relationship between citizens.” She places the photographer, the photographed subject, and the spectator into a single “photographic event,” arguing that images do not call for aesthetic judgment, but for communal responsibility.
Core Concepts: The Photographic Event and the Civil Gaze
Azoulay’s argument unfolds along four primary paths:
1. The Photographic Event: A Tripartite Constitution
A photograph is not an object, but an “event”: the photographer, the photographed, and the spectator meet within an unequal power dynamic, and no party can be erased. The spectator is not a passive onlooker but an active participant responsible to the event. Their response (understanding, appealing, refusing to forget) extends the event’s duration, allowing the photo to continue acting in the public sphere.
2. The Civil Contract: An Image-Based Community of Rights and Obligations
Azoulay treats the photograph as a document making a claim. The photographed subject, in their vulnerability and exposure, appeals to an unspecified “other” for recognition and protection. The spectator’s response constitutes a form of citizenship unauthorized by the state. Therefore, viewing is not just affect; it is a political act of fulfilling an obligation (to witness, translate, protest, preserve).
3. The Counter-Sovereign Gaze: Loosening Borders and National Narratives
In contexts of state violence or occupation, official imagery often uses the language of “security” or “exception” to block empathy. Azoulay argues for a “civil gaze” that crosses national borders: one that does not classify people by passport, but establishes relationships based on injury and appeal. This allows the photo to become a medium for political solidarity with distant strangers.
4. From Aesthetic Judgment to Rebuttable Political Judgment
She does not deny form or aesthetics, but demands the focus be shifted to rebuttable public claims: Who is speaking? Who is silenced? How was the photo edited, captioned, and archived? The spectator must enter the public debate by offering reasons and accepting challenges, rather than remaining in an emotional cycle of “shock-and-fatigue.”
Value and Impact: From Viewing to the Responsibility to Respond
The enduring value of The Civil Contract of Photography can be understood on two levels:
- Value as Method and Tool: The book provides three operational tools: (a) The “event framework”: restoring the single photo to a multi-party, interactive process; (b) The “civil gaze”: defining spectatorship as an ethical practice of responding to a claim; (c) “Non-sovereign politics”: establishing a cross-border language of rights outside of the state and media.
- Long-Term Impact: This book advanced the ethics of photography from “Should we look at cruelty?” to “How must we respond as citizens?” It complements Sontag’s cultural criticism (shifting from perceptual numbness to a call for responsibility) and provides a powerful rationale for subsequent research on archival politics, colonial imagery, and the visibility of refugees.
The Civil Contract of Photography teaches us that to look at a photograph is not just to see the plight of others; it is to accept an ethical summons from them and to respond as a citizen.
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