2023 Infinity Award: Critical Writing, Research, and Theory-Ariella Aïsha Azoulay

The International Center of Photography’s Infinity Awards honor outstanding achievements in photography and visual arts. In 2023, we recognize artists working in photojournalism, contemporary photography, new media, and critical writing, research, and theory. All proceeds from the Infinity Awards directly benefit ICP’s education and exhibition programs, providing critical funding for the entire institution.
Ariella Aïsha Azoulay is Professor of Modern Culture and Media and Comparative Literature at Brown University, a film essayist, and curator of archives and exhibitions.
Her books include: Potential History - Unlearning Imperialism (Verso, 2019); Civil Imagination: The Political Ontology of Photography (Verso, 2012); The Civil Contract of Photography (Zone Books, 2008); From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction and State Formation, 1947-1950, (Pluto Press, 2011).
Her potential histories, archives and curatorial work include: The Natural History of Rape (Berlin Biennale, 2022); Errata (Tapiès Foundation, 2019, HKW, Berlin, 2020), Enough! The Natural Violence of New World Order, (F/Stop photography festival, Leipzig, 2016), Act of State 1967-2007 - Israeli Regime of Occupation 1967-2007, (Centre Pompidou, 2016, Arquivo Municipal de Lisboa Fotografico, 2020); The Body Politic [in Really Useful Knowledge, curated by What, How & for Whom / WHW], Reina Sofia, Madrid; Potential History of Palestine (2012, Stuk / Artefact, Louven), Untaken Photographs (2010, Igor Zabel Award, The Moderna galerija, Lubliana; Zochrot, Tel Aviv).
Among her film-essays: The world like a Jewel in the Hand - Unlearning Imperial Plunder II (2022); Un-documented: Undoing Imperial Plunder (2019); Civil Alliances, Palestine, 47-48 (2012); I Also Dwell Among Your Own People: Conversations with Azmi Bishara (2004) & The Food Chain (2004).