In Part Actual, In Part Virtual

In the introduction of The Civil Contract of Photography by Ariella Azoulay, there are quite a few memories that become the table-setter for her arguments. Azoulay makes it clear that photography is evidence for what has happened and it creates a relationship between the spectator and that particular photography, a "contract." The word contract is used to show us that we are bound to what we are seeing, or "watching" as she puts it and it holds us just as a contract does. She uses the example of Johnathan Walker the supposed "slave stealer" who was accused of freeing slaves and sent to jail for it. Walker' hand was photographed and eternalized by the photograph. Azoulay refers to this image as a "shell, a hat, a fossil."

The differences I see between Azoulay and Fried is that Fried talks more specifically about the art photograph rather then the war photograph/photojournalist photograph. I also want to make the distinction that Fried focuses on how one interprets the construction of the image rather then how Azoulay says the photograph becomes a contract between the photographed, the photographer, and the spectator. Fried mentions the more technical side of photography including the size and what does to our interpretation as well as the absorption of the beholder into an illusory image. In comparison to Azoulay, Fried does not talk about the lasting effects a photograph has on the beholder, this "contract" we are bound to after we have watched upon it. Azoulay is not talking about the illusion but rather the reality of the image.