A WALK IN LONDON #007
Consider the following extract from Collier & Collier (1986, page 79) .
“City streets can be a practical laboratory for photographic analysis of an urban society. The cultural, economic, and racial characteristics of urban areas can be examined in the ebb and flow of city thoroughfares. This flow of population, spontaneously performing and grouping, is a monolithic social structure in motion. Bus stops and crosswalks are like the waterholes and trails in the jungles: wait patiently, and all the forest life will pass before you. Photo journalist W. Eugene Smith stalked the city of New York by keeping a telephoto lens trained on six feet of pavement on the corner of Eighteenth Street and Sixth Avenue. Over a period of a year, as he worked on a book, he shot frame upon frame of street culture. Beggars, lovers meeting, drunken fights, muggings, snow in winter, cloud bursts in summer, all came to his six feet of paving (Smith 1958).
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The mingling of people on the city streets can roughly classify most urban communities.
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Each city community has touch points where the character of its populace can be tracked and measured, the mingling in front of supermarkets, libraries, coming and going from churches, and relaxing in city parks. All these are key points where social flow can be documented and where social structure can be observed in motion.”
Basil (2011, page 251)
“One relatively obvious value of photography is that it helps to overcome the typically fleeting nature of observation. But, photography also allows us to record behavior in its situational context; it also allows for reflection, the use of informants, coding, and allows us to illustrate the situation or behavior to others.”
The following images were taken on the 15th March 2022 in London, UK.
Categorise elements of value or interest to a marketing professional (paying particular attention to elements consumer behaviour) .
Present your observations to the rest of the class in the seminar before facilitating a wider discussion.
