George Simmel asked to lecture on the role of the life in the city but instead reverses the idea and writes about the effect of the city on the individual. This is also the time where Freud writes about psycho-analysis. The resistance of the individual to being levelled, swallowed up in the social technological mechanism. Lewis Hine 1932 photo shows an individual building a skyscraper, all the rules of the city had to be learnt even crossing the roads.
Louis Sullivan the creator of the modern skyscraper.
An idea that the taller building represents upward mobility showing that the sky is the limit.
The city is a melting pot for immigration. A detached view of the city.
Charles Scheeler was an advertising photographer for Ford. He photographs the plant in a modernistic way which shows the factory as a collection of shapes rather than a plant. Fordism - mechanised labour relations, the factory is so repetitive that the person becomes part of that routine. This is shown in Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times" film. The worker becomes the means of production.
Stock market crash of 1929. Factories close and unemployment goes up dramatically. This leads to the Great Depression.
Walter Benjamin - adopted the concept of the urban observer as an analytical tool and as a lifestyle as seen in his writings. He looks at the cafe society in particular and the relationship of the body with the city.
Daido Moriyama exposes himself to the city life where he would not usually be. The photos are disjointed and have an underlying tone of a dark threat. A chase is seen throughout the photos and it looks like he is pursuing something but at the same time nothing.
Automat (1927) Loneliness, A before and an After in the story which is left to our imagination
Sophie Calle Suite Venitienne (1980) - She follows and stalks people just taking photos of them and then looses them. She followed one man to Venice.
Leads to the Detective (1980) she wants to provide a photographic evidence of existence. his photos and notes on her are displayed next to her notes of being followed. She leads him around the city.
911 Bombings - "Here is New York" a book of images taken by everyone of the event. No names were put with the photos and it was a collection from not just photographers but people caught up in the event.
Weegee (Arthur Felig) pursued the darker side of the city and documented the murders and crashes. His book the Naked City looks at his Crisis Photography.
Lorca di Corcia - Heads: People caught on the street deep in thought by photos being triggered by a wire that they stand on. A light would flash on them and catch them on camera.
Joel Meyerowitz - He gives no direction on where to look in the photos.
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