barneycase-documentary: Research Point: Sense of Place.

Research Point: Sense of Place.

The question being asked is, “Is it easier or harder to document a place if you come from it’?

Does local knowledge blind you to the faults of a place? Does intimate knowledge of a place make you too biased to give a fair view of it? Does that same intimate knowledge give you an edge that allows for a deeper insight?

The approaches of the following photographers and their work may give a clue.

Mikhael Subotzky. (Beaufort West).

Born Cape Town, South Africa, 1981.

The Beaufort West pictures paint a pretty bleak view of modern South Africa and could never have been produced by an outsider. The end of Apartheid brought to end end one form discrimination but allowed a second to flourish, the haves and the have nots. As Subotzky describes, "The problem is that so much of the way crime is represented in the popular media polarises victim and perpetrator, us and them, the law-abiding citizens and those who the law-abiding citizens have to fear. I almost see this as a new kind of apartheid - between those that fear and those that are feared.”

An outsider would never have able to photograph the working life of the prostitute Michelle nor the quirky images of Mr. Roussouw the antique seller.

The picture of Jaco the pest controller was interesting in that only the dead jackals were mentioned. There was no mention of the two dead caracals on the right.

Jens Olof Lastheim. (Abkhazia).

Born Sweden, 1964.

Abkhazia is an autonomous republic and is a relic left over from the Russian/Georgia War of 1992/3. Nominally independent it festers on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. Following the war the Georgians fled leaving only the Russians.

Lastheim was definitely an outside when he went on this assignment. The camera he chose was a Widelux panoramic camera giving a 140° field of view. Normally used in landscape photography, it forced him to close in on his subjects and made for interesting perspectives and juxtapositions. What he clearly not do was get in close to was the lives or personalities of these people. There are no indoor or intimate shots. He operates as an outsider and with an outsiders viewpoint. We see what he found interesting but we do not get to the heart of the subjects or the place.

Marco van Duyvendijk. (Mongolia).

Born Netherlands, 1974.

The harsh land of Mongolia is about as far removed from the flatlands of The Netherlands as it possible to be. No matter how long you stayed with these hardy people you would always be an outsider, and that is reflected in this collection. There is a lack of warmth brought about by the posed nature of the images. There are some light touches as well such as the glimpse of Calvin Klein underwear as displayed by the traditional wrestler and the blue puppy hair ties worn by the girl in the butchers. We have a sense of place but only as seen by an outsider.

Philip Cheung. (West Bank).

Based Toronto.

Cheung records the life of this mis-managed part of the world as a stranger. How else can he do it? There is no hint of intimacy in these pictures. They nicely place the subjects in context but there is no attempt to get close, either physically or figuratively. The girls in the fairground boat ride look happy and relaxed, while the images of the young men, one in a gas mask and one using a catapult, give a hint at the violent lives they lead. These images give a fair impression as what life is like on the West Bank but again as seen by an outsider. He only shares the space, he is not part of the place.

Can the same geographical space be two places at the same time?

I am starting with a bit of anecdotal evidence based on a stag night in Brighton. Brighton has to be one of the most hedonistic towns in Britain ,with it’s bars, clubs, and various attractions to meet all tastes. Being older than the rest of the party I bailed out early from the festivities and crashed out. I got up at about five the following morning and went for a walk. The Brighton I saw looked similar to the one I had left only a few hours earlier but was now populated by the local people who supply the town with it’s entertainment. The delivery men, the early opening cafes serving hearty breakfasts, the street cleaners ridding the streets of the previous night's over indulgence. Even the derelict pier look serene.

Barney Case.

As John Agnew of California University says of senses of space and place:

“In the simplest sense place refers to either a location somewhere or to the occupation of that location. The first sense is of having an address and the second is about living at that address. Sometimes this distinction is pushed further to separate the physical place from the phenomenal space in which the place is located. Thus place becomes a particular or lived space. Location then refers to the fact that places must be located somewhere. Place is specific and location (or space) is general”.

According to Yi-Fu Tuan the US-Chinese geographer:

“Space' can be described as a location which has no social connections for a human being. No value has been added to this space. It is an open space, but may marked off and defended against intruders. It does not invite or encourage people to fill the space by being creative. No meaning has been described to it. It is more or less abstract.

'Place' is in contrary more than just a location and can be described as a location created by human experiences. The size of this location does not matter and is unlimited. It can be a city, neighbourhood, a region or even a classroom et cetera. In fact ‘place’ exists of ‘space’ that is filled with meanings and objectives by human experiences in this particular space. Places are centres where people can satisfy there biological needs such as food, water etc.. A ‘place’ does not exist of observable boundaries and is besides a visible expression of a specific time period. Examples are arts, monuments and architecture.”

Conclusion:

The Brighton I encountered was indeed one space, but two different places. The difference was not location but time.

References:

http://web.archive.org/web/20090222104822/

[Accessed: 18th. September 2015].

http://www.jmcolberg.com/weblog/2008/11/review_beaufort_west_by_mikhae.html

[Accessed: 18th. September 2015].

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhael_Subotzky

[Accessed: 17th. September 2015].

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abkhazia

[Accessed: 17th September 2015].

http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/mikhael_subotzky_articles.htm