Can you help me find photographers with projects that are evocative for my research paper?

December 4, 2008 7:12 AM

I am writing a paper on photographic representations of the city or urban spaces, in particular photography that attempts to 'capture' the ubiquitous "non-places" as described by Marc Augé. But I am having trouble finding photographers that seem to fit! Can you help?

What is a non-place through the perspective of Marc Augé? Some examples are airports, atm machines, highways gas stations, grocery stores, malls. While a place is relational, historical, and concerned with identity, the non-place is the opposite of that. The non-place is a passage from one place to another. Human behaviour in a non-place is prescribed and made automatic by explicit instructions in images and text (signs that direct you to airplane gates, that tell you what to do in a given situation). In these spaces, it is always temporal - you are either waiting, moving through a line-up, or leaving. Never resting, contemplating, or dwelling.

There are lots of photographers who take pictures of non-places but they usually end up finding a good angle to aestheticize them, and I think it is also because non-places are so ubiquitous that any photographer concerned with the city would be taking pictures of them either way.

So I am trying to find photographers who take the non-place as the subject of the image itself (for its interesting characteristics), or end up doing that as a byproduct of a complex project. So far, I have found three promising projects: Denis Darzacq (retail stores are also non-places), Ethan Levitas (subway cars) and the partnership of Can Bekdemir and Ozhan Benici.

What emerges from these artists is the question: what happens to the human subject in a non-place? This is a great angle, but I still feel like something is missing. And I would rather have several projects to choose from that allow me the richest interpretation and ability to bring in aspects of the nature of photographic representation of the city itself (to be able to capture the invisible feeling of a place) as well as aspects of Augé's thought.

Can you recommend any photographers who you feel have evoked aspects of the non-place intentionally? Or whose work ends up doing that anyway? Or do you have any additional advice or recommendations?

posted by valmonster to society & culture (13 comments total)

Reading through the concept, it sounds a bit like an extension, or a very specific subset of, the concept of liminal space. This may be a term that proves useful in your search.
posted by piratebowling at 7:53 AM on December 4, 2008

How about Ed Ruscha's Twentysix Gasoline Stations? They are not at all aestheticized, but their serialization does present a personal narrative.
posted by xo at 7:55 AM on December 4, 2008

Martha Rosler's airport photo series, entitled In the Place of the Public, seems in line with what you're looking for.
posted by Morpeth at 7:59 AM on December 4, 2008

I like this set of photos The rights are reserved, but i think that if you asked him, he'd be happy to share.
posted by joelf at 8:52 AM on December 4, 2008

If you browse the archives of this website

Conscientious

you will find photographers whose work fits your requirements.

I suggest these photographers

Brian Ulrich
Manya Fox
posted by conrad53 at 8:53 AM on December 4, 2008

you could also have a look through all the CC licensed shots tagged with nonplace
posted by joelf at 8:58 AM on December 4, 2008

What emerges from these artists is the question: what happens to the human subject in a non-place? This is a great angle, but I still feel like something is missing.

I personally think the other way around. The non-place is a place, so long as people are there. It's people that give it a meaning. People are people wherever they go, and yes, certainly the non-place is very significant in today's society for many different reasons, but in the end a non-place is a non-place because it doesn't make sense unless people are there to give it a use, whichever it may be. Of course, there is a dichotomy here, and that is what makes it interesting. That's why so many photographers make it the object of their work and still manage to produce something different every time.


There are lots of photographers who take pictures of non-places but they usually end up finding a good angle to aestheticize them, and I think it is also because non-places are so ubiquitous that any photographer concerned with the city would be taking pictures of them either way.

Yeah, so? Why should you rule something out just because it started as an intention to produce something beautiful? Can you really make such a distinction between form and meaning? Why are you assuming there is one?

As for photographers to use as reference, there are just so many... I'd go as far as the Bechers, Gursky, certainly Ruscha, also Giacomo Basilico, the history of photography is filled with examples. But your paper - which sounds so interesting to me - will be greatly improved if you write what you think and feel about the subject, instead of listing a bunch of artists (I really liked Denis Darzacq by the way, thanks for that!).
posted by neblina_matinal at 10:45 AM on December 4, 2008

(It's Gabriele Basilico, not Giacomo. Something I should know by now because I keep re-naming the guy every chance I get. And I like the name Gabriele, imagine if I didn't.)
posted by neblina_matinal at 10:49 AM on December 4, 2008

Andreas Gursky

Also, why limit it to photography? What about artists who made non-places, like Robert Smithson.
posted by Jason and Laszlo at 11:32 AM on December 4, 2008

Hi everyone, thanks for your great feedback. Jason and Laszlo: I am limiting this paper to photography since it is a Masters paper with very in-depth analysis, and has the potential to be publishable. If I try to tackle too much in the small space of the research paper it will become unfocused.

Neblina_Matinal: thanks for your very challenging comments. I am not looking to list countless photographers in my paper, but focus on one, two or three to write about in-depth. I thought getting more photographers to choose from would help me to pick the ones to really bring out the right ideas for my paper.

Conrad53: Love Brian Ulrich! His "Retail" series is very promising. And xo: great suggestion with the 26 gas stations, will look more into that series.

I look forward to hearing more suggestions! I am glad I took this issue to Askmefi.
posted by valmonster at 12:11 PM on December 4, 2008

To go along with the gas stations, here are some Soviet bus stops. Ruscha also did vacant lots, rooftops, parking lots.

Your third link (Bekdemir/Benici) reminds me a lot of Philip-Lorca diCorcia's Streetwork series, which he terms "non-event", so it interests me that someone else with the same idea thinks of it as non-place.

Bill Sullivan's work is people passing through subway turnstiles. That project puts me in mind of typologies, which seem to have that non-place thing going on as well. There are series on cell phone trees, tended shrubbery, strip malls, etc.
posted by xo at 4:16 PM on December 4, 2008

Ulrich was the first photographer that came to my head, too. Look at his blog for mention of other photographers in similar veins.

This may be too obvious or too big of a name, but why not Martin Parr? He did a children's fashion shoot in a dental clinic! He released a book of boring postcards! He's made a career photographing things that would ordinarily be outside the concern of a photographer. They're boring places, unextraordinary places, tourist traps indistinguishable from the next (in fact, in photographing some of his tourist locations, he's made what should be Places with a capital P into nonplaces), and so forth.

Also, look at Esther Levine's Urban Photo Project. She doesn't have much online, and I don't think the photos on that site represent the work and its focus on the little details of cities...
posted by msbrauer at 6:50 PM on December 4, 2008

xo: wow, thank you so much for the reference to Bill Sullivan. His work is PERFECT - especially the fact that his manifesto links him directly to the Situationists, who of course were very influential artists in representing the city.
posted by valmonster at 6:58 PM on December 4, 2008