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THE CONQUEST OF THE WORLD AS A PICTURE
Shortly after photography's appearance, the process of "conquering the world as a picture"1 commenced. In this era, photography became a prime mediator in the social and political relations among citizens, as well as the relations between citizens and the powers that be.2 We thus live in an era in which it is difficult to conceive of even a single human activity that does not use photography, or at least provide an opportunity for it to be deployed in the past, present or future.3 Newspaper reportage, jurisprudence, medicine, education, politics, family, entertainment and recreation-everything is mediated by photography.4 There are virtually no restrictions on the use of photography in public space.5 Everyone and everything is liable to become a photograph. However, there are exceptions-military zones, for instance, and other enclosed spaces where rules concerning the use of photography are enforced.6 In certain domains, the use of photography is a duty (identity photos for official documents) or normative (class photographs). Most often, the encounter with photography does not require explicit consent from its users, whether they are photographers or spectators. That which has yet to be conquered is always susceptible to becoming a goal of conquest: "the conquest of the world as picture" was not hastily undertaken, nor did it emerge out of oppression. Conquering the world as a picture means that every citizen could see-through photographs, and thus through the eyes of others-more than they could see by herself. This process was not directed from "on high" by means of a central body that administered the use of photography, or regulated the infinite output that it produced. Photography functions on a horizontal plane, it is present everywhere-actually or potentially.7 The conquest of the world as picture is enacted simultaneously by everyone who holds a camera, serves as the object of a photograph or looks at photographs.
The conquest of the world as picture was photography's vision from its very beginning, and is performed anew each and every moment. The dynamic partnership of "everyone" in the fulfillment of this vision makes them citizens in the citizenry of photography. Their participation simultaneously in the conquered world (as picture) and in the powers that conquer (photographer and spectators), actually prevents...