When Images Take a Position: Didi-Huberman’s Brechtian Intervention

Didi-Huberman’s concern with the political efficacy of images brings his work into dialogue with debates concerning the relationship between images and politics in the wake of 9/11. Footage of the World Trade Center attacks, photographs from Abu Ghraib, and, more recently, the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris have renewed critical discussions concerning the power of images to shape realities. How is it possible for images to represent events that no longer have meaning, through either media overexposure or sheer lack of visibility in public consciousness? What lessons does Didi-Huberman’s retrieval of the ambitions of the historical avant-garde hold for contemporary artists and theorists? How may a politically engaged artist take a position?