Rocznik Historii Sztuki (31.2006)

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DARIA KOŁACKA

CHOREOGRAPHY OF THE BIG CITY IN CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY

Abstract

The main question addressed in my study "Choreography of the Big City in Contemporary Photography" is how stationery,
two-dimensional images reflect a multidimensional urban reality perceived with a variety of sensés - primarily through movement
and acoustics. The city changes permanently through moving traffic and through light, which in turn transforms the stability of ar-
chitecture. Both of them cause the feeling that the image of the city doesn У actually exist as a stable form. There is only a moving
constellation of éléments: cars passing by, walking people, changing traffic lights and neon advertisements, which together create
constantly new combinations as shown in the works of Robert Walker. Reflection in glass Windows and mirrors also multiplies the
choreography of meeting and avoidance, so characteristic of a city, which is one of the most important éléments of the Improvisa-
tion Technologies by William Forsythe.

This movement, characteristic of the street, also produces a distinctly choreographed, rhythmic stopping and starting at traffic
lights, disappearance into subways or traversing of the street on zebra-crossings. However the movement in question is not visually
harmonie, but is filled with time-and space scratches just like sampling in musie. Just like the repeated beat found in modern musie,
the dynamie répétition of the city" s movement brings about an anaesthetising of the sensés, dulling one4 s perception with its excess
of impulses.

Parallel to this coolness of perception - a kind of conditio humana of big city inhabitants - is the coolness of the metropolitan
image, which reflects itself in omniprésent mirrors and glasses. In the pictures of Tom Wood reality is brought into question - the
city is purposefully portrayed in an ambiguous manner and it is no longer clear what is reality, what is merely an image of it and
what is a reflection of thèse two states. In this way the photography is used to question the identity of the city and develops its own
methods of showing it without reducing the city to a symbol. Another photographer who has striven to find an innovative way to
portray the city is Philip-Lorca di Corcia. The multiplication of similar éléments in his photographs evokes the sensé that the picture
discovers a new aurai dimension: as in the example "Hong Kong4 where the repeated triangles of the passing legs conjures up the
staccato rhythm of the steps.

In a différent way Gilbert & George introduce acoustics into their photographie works through the use of graffiti-writing. Their
photographs are constructed after film-montage principles, juxtaposing miscellaneous images of the city with large graffitied letters
of the alphabet spelling out swear words. Like in film, the montage questions the "objective character" of photography as a medium.
Both film and photography, are built not as a narrative continuity but through the montage of éléments. One of the most important
features of film is its use of 24 images per second with a pause breaking up each séquence. This pause is the filmie équivalent of
blinking in everyday life. The photographie image itself is like a pause in time and space. But it is not an empty space. Wynton
Marsalis describes the technique of playing jazz as follows: "The fun cornes when you take your listeners in one direction by play-
ing some steady rhythm, repeated phrase, and then you change the direction - jumping, skipping or stopping unexpectedly". Like
musie, the photographie image is an unexpected but calculated highpoint of the perception.

Daria Kołacka