The invention of photography transformed the world, with the explosion of photographic experimentation in the mid-19th century coinciding with the rapid growth of cities across the globe.
A new exhibition at V&A Dundee, co-curated by V&A Dundee and V&A South Kensington uses the V&A’s spectacular photography collections to explore the ways photography and cities have influenced each other.
Marking 10 years of Dundee’s designation as the only UNESCO City of Design, Photo City: How Images Shape the Urban World shows that photography does more than document and reflect city life. As a design tool photography also shapes our understanding of cities and helps us project future ways of living together.
Meredith More, V&A Dundee curator, said: “Photo City brings two very relatable themes together – photography and cities and explores the ways the development of both cities and photography through the 19th and 20th centuries, and right up to today, are intertwined.
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“In this exhibition visitors will have the chance to see iconic city photography by some of the most acclaimed photographers in history including Henri Cartier Bresson, Berenice Abbott and Paul Strand, and to discover how these works have influenced the way cities are designed and experienced.
"Visitors will also encounter exciting work by contemporary architects, photographers and artists who question the ways images shape and mediate our daily lives. The exhibition also expands on the idea of what photography is by including contemporary imaging technologies such as GPS, drones, gaming technology and lidar scanning.”
“A highlight is a new portrait of Dundee commissioned for the exhibition, it is a huge aerial view of the city made up of thousands of collaged photographs taken in the summer of 2023. Dundee is the latest city in Japanese photographer Sohei Nishino’s ambitious ‘Diorama Map’ series, which also includes New York, Paris, London, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.”
Another major new commission is a collaborative videogame called Gimbal City designed by former University of Dundee graduates, Sasha Belitskaja and Shaun McCallum of architecture design and research studio iheartblob. The brightly coloured installation invites visitors to collaborate on a future city design using playful and tactile controls. Their work uses technology to empower more people to take part in the design and architecture of the places that surround us.
Lisa Springer, International Programmes Curator, V&A South Kensington, said: “To curate this exhibition we delved into the incredible photography collections at the V&A and have taken the opportunity to interpret iconic works in totally new ways by considering their influence on architecture and design. This has given us the chance to curate a different type of photography exhibition for a design museum.”
Brendan Cormier, Chief Curator, V&A East, said: “There have been thousands of exhibitions on photography and cities before. Where Photo City is different, however, is in its emphasis on photography as an active agent, a technology that doesn’t just reflect the changing nature of cities but is a powerful force in shaping cities.
“Today, we are surrounded by photographic images and the acts of taking, sharing and responding to them are integral to daily life. This exhibition explores how from the mesmerizing inventions of the earliest photographs, through photography’s many technological developments, images are still entirely central to the way we design, experience and imagine cities.”
More than 150 photographs, films and installations will go on display as part of the free exhibition, Photo City: How Images Shape the Urban World, opening Saturday March 29 until October 27 2024 at V&A Dundee.
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