Psychogeography

The Filbert Steps, Telegraph Hill, San Francisco.

"Mindfully engaging with a physical place, looking at the geography, landmarks, and architecture and responding to them in a literary or artistic manner."

I think most of us (photographers) have used these techniques many times when making work. To have a conceptual term like psychogeography as a framework for analysing and critiquing the work is useful. For previous assignments I've made images both at the location of my childhood home and were I now live. Both pieces were successful because of an ability to relate to the landscape in a personal way. Personal identification with an area or building adds authenticity that is usually perceived by the viewer and makes the work stronger.

OCA student Jodie Taylor's work 'Memories from Childhood' is a case in point. The images are used in the course notes for this section on genres and psychogeography. In the work I was instantly drawn to the similarity in environments in which I grew up. As a kid listlessly hanging around behind the public garages on a hot summer's day, is something I distinctly remember doing. Taylor's images connected me to that memory so strongly I could even smell baked concrete. It is through the photographer's subjective interpretation of place that connections can be made with viewers that may share a commonality of experience. Other viewers with vastly different backgrounds will pass over images such as this.

I do not think it is possible to provide an objective depiction of a place. Although many claim to do so. Bias is within all of us. We are influenced by our upbringing, culture, and formed points of view. And I don't think there is anything wrong with that. It is when points of view are presented as fact and objective that photographic works unravels in my opinion.