34 The medium of Instagram complicates the exchange of citizenship. A user may see hundreds of posts a day and undertaking the task of dissecting the context and reading the injury is no small undertaking. For Azoulay, though, our ability to do so is a precondition of our “right” to see.39 If we are not willing to engage with the complex and often challenging nature of photography, then we cannot claim a space in the citizenry of photography. In fact, Azoulay sees the widespread adoption of the camera as an opportunity, establishing “a new form of encounter” and one which creates “new possibilities of political action and forming new conditions for visibility.”40 The prolific nature of photography and photo-sharing technologies is not a burden. Rather, it is an opportunity to extend the citizenry of photography--and thus the larger narrative--to those for whom it was previously inaccessible. In some ways, Osmann has done a great service to the citizenry of photography, even if he “remains totally unaware of the violence involved.”41 With each of his photographs, the spectator encounters new possibilities for action and forming conditions for “visibility,” a new opportunity to engage in exchanges of citizenry with people all over the world.42 Instagram, and, more specifically, Osmann’s account, creates a space that is not governed by political power, but is rather controlled by the masses. CONCLUSION As such a novel medium, Instagram presents a challenge to well-established theories of travel and photography. In an increasingly globalized and photo-centric world, Instagram operates as a litmus test for how these theories operate in reality. A common motif is that the act of representation is perceived by the representer as one which does not interfere, which remains separate from the object represented. Pratt, Mitchell, and Azoulay have all taken interest in this phenomenon, speaking in distant terms of the writer or photographer as a separate actor. However, Instagram (and digital culture more broadly) has complicated the notion of separate actors. In the modern age, anyone with a camera phone or access to the internet is capable both of spectating and of producing representation. No longer is this reserved for the explorer who travels to far-off lands and records his observations in a notebook, the exhibitioner who, at great expense, replicates with extreme detail the streets of another city with the authority of accuracy, or the photographer who lugs his bulky camera equipment to photograph a distant region. Today, most people 39 40 41 42
Azoulay, 144. Azoulay, 24. Azoulay, 13. Azoulay, 24.