This book presents a critical and aesthetic defence of non-place as an act of cultural reclamation. Through the restorative properties of photography, it re-conceptualises the cultural significance of non-place. The non-place is often referred to as wasteland, and is usually avoided. The sites investigated in this book are located where access and ownership are often ambiguous or in dispute; they are places of cultural forgetting. Drawing on the author's own photographic research-led practice, as well as material from photographers such as Ed Ruscha, Joel Sternfeld and Richard Misrach, this study employs a deliberately allusive intertexuality to offer a unique insight into the contested notions surrounding landscape representation. Ultimately, it argues that the non-place has the potential to reveal a version of England that raises questions about identity, loss, memory, landscape valorisation, and, perhaps most importantly, how we are to arrive at a more meaningful place.

Constitutes the first book to critically investigate the notion of non-place, using of the author's own urban landscape photography, as well as examples from world famous photographers Posits non-place as a provocative palimpsest, from which a diverse range of imaginative interdisciplinary discourses can emerge Branches into several subject areas, such as landscape studies, urban studies, fine art practice, auto-ethnography and architecture

Autorentext
Jim Brogden is Lecturer in Visual Communication Culture and MA Programme Leader for Film, Photography and Media at the University of Leeds, UK.

Klappentext

This book presents a critical and aesthetic defence of "non-place" as an act of cultural reclamation. Through the restorative properties of photography, it re-conceptualises the cultural significance of non-place. The non-place is often referred to as "wasteland", and is usually avoided. The sites investigated in this book are located where access and ownership are often ambiguous or in dispute; they are places of cultural forgetting. Drawing on the author's own photographic research-led practice, as well as material from photographers such as Ed Ruscha, Joel Sternfeld and Richard Misrach, this study employs a deliberately allusive intertexuality to offer a unique insight into the contested notions surrounding landscape representation. Ultimately, it argues that the non-place has the potential to reveal a version of England that raises questions about identity, loss, memory, landscape valorisation, and, perhaps most importantly, how we are to arrive at a more meaningful place.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. Walking as a Decisive Moment.- 3. Representations of the Urban Landscape.- 4. Anthropological Encounters in Non-Place.- 5. The Valedictory Landscape.