Georg Simmel (1858-1918), a German sociologist who wrote Metropolis and Mental Life.
Dresden Exhibition, 1903. Simmel was asked to lecture on the role of intellectual life in the city but instead reverses the idea and writes about the effect of the city on the individual.
Urban Sociology- Lewis Hine (1932). He looks at the fragility of the body to this mammoth creation of the city, the huge buildings and architecture. The architecture of the the city defines it.
Architect Louis Sullivan (1856-1924)
- Creator of the modern skyscraper, known as the 'father of skyscrapers'.
- An influential architect and critic of the Chicago School.
- Organic nature in his design.
The building is built using Terra Cotta (baked earth). Louis Sullivan is considered to be a forward thinker with his design of this building as it combines the modern skyscraper built fully out of Terra Cotta and is very ornate.
The skyscraper became symbolic of change.
Another one of Louis Sullivan's buildings is Carson Pirie Scott store in Chicago (1904).
'Art in America' BBC documentary.
Click the link to watch Manhatta.
'Manhatta' (1921) Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler. Strand was a photographer and Sheeler a painter.There is an unusual structure to the film.
Fordism; Mechanized labour relation. Manufacturing to a high standard for means of mass production. Coined by Italian writer Antonio Gramsci in his essay 'Americanism and Fordism'.
The Charlie Chaplin film 'Modern Times' (1936) , criticizes the concept of Fordism. It follows the main character struggling to survive in the modern, industrialized world. A comment on employment and social conditions faced during the Great Depression, created by Modern Industrialization.
1929- The stock market crash. Industries and Factories seemed golden until the Great Depression. Factories shut and unemployment rises dramatically leading to this Great Depression.
Click the link to watch Man with a Movie Camera
'Man with a Movie Camera' (1929) Dziga Vertov. A Russian director whose work was considered pioneering at this time, he uses lots of different camera shots and techniques.
Flaneur- Comes from the French word for stroller. Used to describe the upper class gentleman stroller leisurely wandering around the city, surveying the streets.
'A person who walks the city in order to experience it' Charles Baudelaire. Art should capture this.
Walter Benjamin adopts the concept of the urban observer as an analytical tool and as a lifestyle as seen in his writing. Benjamin's 'Arcades Project' (1927-1940) was a lifelong project of Benjamin's, a collection of writings about the city and construction of glass covered arcades in Paris. Benjamin saw them as being inhabited by the flaneur in the city and co insiding with Paris's streetlife. They began to be constructed in the early 19th century, however many of them were destroyed during Baron Haussman's renovation of Paris known as Haussmanisation.
Photographer as a flaneur. 'an armed version of the solitary walker'- Susan Sontag.
Flaneuse- Female version of the Flaneur.
'The Dialects of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades' - Susan Buck-Morss.
In this text Susan Buck-Morss analyses Benjamin's concept. Commenting on the female flaneur/wandering are usually described with negative connotations, e.g. as prostitutes.
'Woman at a counter smoking' NYC, 1962, Diane Arbus.
When a female figure is alone it is questioned and queried why, whereas if a man is seen alone there are no questions asked. It seems more normal for a man to be unaccompanied than a woman. It seems that if a woman is alone then there must be something wrong or unusual happening.
Sophie Calle, a photographer. She followed a man through a city and eventually follows him to Venice. Venice is the perfect setting for her detective photography journey, streets and alleyways for getting lost and following this perfect stranger.
'Suite Venitienne' Venice, 1980, Sophie Calle
Tate Article about this project.
'Untitled Film Stills' 1977-1980, Cindy Sherman
The female figure here is surrounded by the skyscrapers in the city.
Weegee, real name Arthur Felig, a Ukrainian photographer who photographed murders and police investigations in NYC. He follows the emergency services around and captures the crime scenes as they have just occurred.
Weegee
'Drunken Men' 1943, Weegee.
'Joy Of Living' 1947, Weegee
Car Hits 3d Ave. L - One
Dies, Two Hurt. Under double-bill movie marquee, body of
Stanley Stanley, was covered with newspapers and coats by
police. Technical charge of homicide was lodged against
Frank Whalen, who was taken to Bellevue Hospital for
observation. Another passenger, Joseph Mahoney, also was
hurt.
'He will take his camera and ride off in search of new evidence that his city, even in her most drunken and disorderly and pathetic moments, is beautiful' - William McCleery in Naked City.
'Naked City', 1945, Anthony W Lee and Richard Meyer.
He chases around these dramatic crime scenes following murders and the deaths of people in mysterious circumstances, often getting to the scenes before the emergency services. His photographs are shocking because of the gritty reality behind them, capturing night life, the drunk crowds, brawls of the busy city. I would like to do some further reading into his journalistic photography approach and this tabloid style of capturing events.
'L.A Noire' (2011) is the first video game to be shown at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Metropolis by Fritz-Lang paints a picture of what the city of the future could be like.
'Metropolis', 1927, Fritz-Lang
'Blade Runner', 1982, Ridley Scott
Blade Runner creates a picture of a futuristic Los Angeles in 2019 where genetically engineered robots have been created, however banned from earth, they must be hunted down and destroyed.
'Many are called', 1938, Walker Evans
Walker Evans photographs people in the city, capturing moments where people are surrounded by buildings and people however seem separate from the city and alone.
Photographer Joel Meyerwitz, known for his street photography, captures the confusion and overload of the city and crowds.
Crisis in the city means the demise of the Flaneur. Tragic events make you and the city more surveillanced and suspicious of everyone. An underlying threat in the city of something bad happening creates panic and constant state of wariness.
