Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures

Abstract

The city symphony film is a recognized form, identified with a particular period in cinema history although new examples appear from time to time. Photographic portraits of cities have received less attention, even though efforts to systematically depict cities have been a staple of photographic history since the nineteenth century surveys of architectural monuments. Urban photographic portraits, often tied to book publication, include such notable examples as W. Eugene Smith’s Pittsburgh project, Berenice Abbott’s Changing New York, the depiction of New York, Rome, Moscow and Tokyo by William Klein and of Florence, London, Dublin, and New York by Evelyn Hofer. Such efforts can be set against the neighborhood, village, or small-town portraits by figures such as Chris Killip, as well as more expansive works devoted to regions or nations. In the age of Google Street View and Earth the idea of urban portraiture may seem old-fashioned. Yet works such as Made in Dublin by Eamonn Doyle (2019), with texts by Kevin Barry, demonstrate that photographers continue to accept the challenge of representing that dauntingly complex subject, the modern city.
This paper will provide an introduction to this enormous topic, setting out the major issues and using two projects as the primary examples. Dublin: A Portrait (1967), with photographs by Evelyn Hofer and text by V.S. Pritchett, will represent the classical model of urban photographic portraits. Doyle’s Dublin book (and installation and video, with Niall Sweeney) will represent a less conventional, more contemporary approach to photography and the city.