This introduction to a special section on 'Photography and the State' reflects on trends in photography theory exemplified in essays by Jens Andermann, Ariella Azoulay, Andrea Noble, and Bronwyn Law-Viljoen. It suggests that the contributors make a powerful argument for photography's emergent contribution to theories of the state and of sovereignty. It situates this work in the context of a growing body of scholarship (by theorists such as Natalia Brizuela, Paula Corté s-Rocca, Clare Harris, Chris Pinney, and Karen Strassler) attuned to photography's role in political imagination in post-colonial and post-imperial spaces, and underscores movement of the field away from intersubjective conceptions of photographic ethics and debates about indexicality.Key words archive j photography j sovereignty j the state T HE ARTICLES gathered here share a sense of contemporaneity and relevance to our time, whether defined as a moment in the use of photography as such, in the unfolding of its 'world history', or as a moment in its theory. In fact, if there is any unity across these pieces,
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