LATENT IMAGES ON THE CAMERA’S WALL: Forensic aesthetics as photography

This paper examines the “algorithmic turn” in light of the “forensic turn” and seeks to consider the relevance of Forensic Architecture’s work for the theory of photography. First, I will analyze the role of photography as testimony in light of the concept of “forensic aesthetics,” and argue that with it, the role of photography as evidence is less related to its visible dimensions and more to its being a material trace—an invisible latent image that needs to be developed and animated. Second, I will diagnose the implication of the concept of “forensic aesthetics” in one of the agency’s first research projects: an investigation of US drone warfare in Pakistan from 2011 and argue that the concern that arose with the emergence of digital photography from a “post-photographic” era—in which the effect of digital technologies was perceived as the virtualization of the world—takes a material twist with forensic aesthetics. It is precisely the digitization of photography that enables it to maintain its indexical power, even at the cost of losing its limits as a medium.