PHOTOGRAPHING THE URBAN LANDSCAPE
The urban landscape can be viewed both
as a series of structures and edifices
more or less organised by human action
and as a panorama of social and cultural
histories framing our present and
inscribing our past. Seen in this way,
'....the conurbation becomes one huge
archaeological site as the city reveals its
inner self through a continuous process
of urban renewal and revitalisation in
which the very innards of the landscape
are exposed and delayered like a vast
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anatomical dissection' (Ron McCormick,
Archaeologies : Tracing History in the
Urban Landscape, 1998). The challenge
for urban landscape photography is to not
only record the physical manifestations
of this relentless process, but also
to make visible the underlying social
and cultural forces which ultimately
determine their form and meaning.
The enduring power of photography
lies in the acceptance of its images
as credible documentary records with