In What Way is Urban Space Branded Through Photography

8/6/2019 In What Way is Urban Space Branded Through Photography

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Juan Veloza

In what way is urban space brandedthrough photography?

essay submitted as part of the MA in Brand DevelopmentGoldsmiths

University of London2011



Introduction

Since its origins, photography has sought to capture andframe the visual language of the urban space. Its evolutionhas been a parallel process in order to meet the ongoingprocess of change. The branding process of the urban spaceis very often connected with urban regeneration anddevelopment, but it can be also linked to economic andsocial factors that define attributes or characteristics thatpermit cities to be recognised and differentiated.Photography documents and mediates in this process wherethe public consumes and interacts in and within cities and

urban spaces. Photographs are valued because they giveinformation (Sontag 2002: 22).

This essay will examine firstly notions of consumption andbranding framed in the current economic order in anattempt to analyse in what way urban space is brandedthrough photography. It will then go on to look at the role of architects and designers in the creation of urban spaces.

It will explore urban space interventions and cases of regeneration firstly in Liverpool, and polemical projects inNew York and Birmingham where the core debate was theprivatisation of the public space. The latter will examine theintervention of photography in the chronologicdocumentation of the process and its role as mediatorbetween the public and space representations.

Finally, this essay will consider notions of globalisation. Howcities become global and how their scale and imaginary isperceived and associated. It looks at the visual approach of

In what way is urban space branded through photography? Juan Veloza

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the city scale of Shirley Jordan. These associations andperceptions are often linked with recognition and positioningwhich are fundamental in branding cities and urban spaces.

Photography does not simply reproduce the real, it recyclesit. (Sontag: 174)

Culture and consumption driving regeneration

The identification of urban spaces through emblematicbuildings has been extensively used in still photography,film and various other media for many years. The images of the Empire State Building in New York, the Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Parliament’s clock tower in

London, the Colosseum in Rome among others areintroduced in different systems of representation to becomesymbols of location. This imagery is probably the most basicway of visual consumption to identify a space. “Needing tohave reality confirmed and experience enhanced byphotographs is an aesthetic consumerism to which everyoneis now addicted” (Sontag 2002: 24).

“When we construct our perceptions of places we visit…some element of media culture generally enters as acommunicative, interpretative or inspirational device”

(Arvidsson 2006:12) It is almost certain that spaceidentification has evolved into a more exceptional strategyto recognise and differentiate spaces.

In this attempt to explain in what ways urban spaces arebranded through photography we should consider first theanalysis of the interactions between people and urbanspaces. These relations imply the creation of contexts of consumption where consumers actively give new meanings


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to those spaces with which they interact. Consumersestablish social relations, emotions, identities andcommunity sense. Consumption is a ‘critical site in whichidentities, boundaries and shared meanings are forged’(Kates, 2002 quoted in Arvidsson 2006: 18). In this sense“Photography document[s] sequences of consumption”(Sontag 2002: 9).

Consumption is not limited to commerce; it goes beyond itand also always involves cultural and economic factors(Douglas and Isherwood 1979 quoted in Lury 1996). It wouldappear that changes in consumers’ behaviour in the lasttwenty years led to the rise of the study of consumption as atheory. Baudrillard describes it as:

The whole discourse on consumption, whether learned orlay, is articulated on the mythological sequence of the fable:a man, ‘endowed’ with needs which ‘direct’ him towardsobjects that ‘give’ satisfaction. Since man is never reallysatisfied (for which, by the way, he is reproached), the samehistory is repeated indefinitely since the time of ancientfables (Baudrillard 1988: 35).

Within these processes of consumption is evident theconstruction of communities of citizens or consumers aroundurban spaces or products. As Muniz and O’Guinn stated“ordinary suburban Americans readily form communitiesaround brands like Saab, Bronco or Macintosh” (quoted inArvidsson 2006:19).

In this context, the brand communication objective is tomake sure representations and meanings that consumershave of products, companies, cities and urban spacesamong others are framed within those contained in thebrand. It implies a further challenge for brand specialists: asconsumers are active entities, brands’ messages tend to beperceived differently by external and internal audiences.

Advertising has historically been the most visible,spectacular and eye-catching of the marketing functions(Moor 2007: 39). Branding as a discipline confrontstraditional advertising, which in its traditional form produces


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models or representations to which consumers are expectedto identify. It is presumptuous to attempt to have a singledefinition of branding, but it is essential to mention itsrelationship with design, a discipline with a preponderantimportance in the new economic and social environment.Branding has the capacity to change consumers’perceptions towards determined and methodically definedspaces. Its development has increased the attentionconsumers or citizens have in those spaces, environments orplaces where they interact with their preferred products orservices.

One might also consider that the increased use of branding,with its inherent interactions between consumers or citizensand products or services, requires the development of “branded environments” (Moor 2003 quoted in Moor 2007).Its application is very evident in the retail sector, but inrecent years governments and institutions have also usedbranding in order to redefine their public image and identity(among internal and external audiences) and to generateeconomic interest.

It is important to consider that constant flows of capital,labour, goods, raw materials and travellers, among others,have been always part of our economy. More recently,globalisation and other recent economic episodes such the2008-9 economic recession have changed the global order,increasing proximity between cities, regions and countriesand therefore competition to attract investment andtourism.

It is likely that shifts in developed economies from

manufacturing to service industries and with the cost of labour becoming competitively reduced in the developingworld, cities and regions - especially in Europe and NorthAmerica - must find alternative ways to persuadeestablished businesses to remain on site or must encouragenew funding or investment from private or governmentsources (Moor 2007: 74).Architecture and spaces of consumption


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It is particularly interesting to consider the role of designersand architects in the construction of the cityscape and theinherent visual understanding of urban space. Also theimportance of photography in this processes of regenerationand construction of urban interpretations. The visual cultureof urban regeneration is a key aspect in this process todiscuss in what way urban space is branded throughphotography.

Regeneration programmes across cities in Europe and NorthAmerica have generally focused on the use of culture andarts as their primary concept for intervention. It has evenbeen highly promoted through initiatives like the EuropeanCapital of Culture, which allows the host city to organisecultural events with a European impact. The initiative is alsoan opportunity for the city to invest in cultural infrastructureand regeneration and to revamp its image internationally. Itseems to be the perfect opportunity for cities “to integrateart and cultural practices within the regeneration of urbanfabrics and communities” (Kennedy 2004: 6).

The benefits of this initiative are well documented in thecase of Liverpool 2008. Its success and experience in“cultural-led” urban regeneration became a key aspirationfor new candidates. The programme changed thecharacteristic and stereotypical image of the city’s socialdeprivation. Its benefits included high communityparticipation (66% of the residents took part in at least onecultural activity), a significant increase in the number of visitors to the city (up by 35% in 2008) and beneficialimpacts on its economy. It was not just Liverpool thatbenefited, it also contributed to developments and

improvements in the entire Merseyside region to whichLiverpool belongs. In general the internal and externalperceptions of Liverpool citizens has changed, and todayLiverpool’s image has improved considerably (2010,http://www.liv.ac.uk/impacts08/, University of Liverpool). Thecity uses its contrasting imagery, where citizens areinteracting and participating in its revitalised cultural life,with magnificent architecture and cultural venues toemphasise its modern and cultural character to its


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inhabitants and also to attract the interest of potentialvisitors and investors. Its successful regenerationprogramme will also be supported through the visualdocumentation of the process and commitment of Liverpool’s citizens.

Space is a “frequented place”, Michel de Certeau

In this discussion about the branding process of urban spacethrough photography it is essential to consider theimportance of public space especially in the post-industrialera and the debates around its significance in modern cities.Cities have always been the meeting point of differentpopulations (Aristotle 1992, Southall, 1998, Manadipour2004: 268), and are characterised by the relevance of acentral place where many activities converge. In moderncities the public space concept has changed and it is openlycontrolled and driven by many different interests, bothpublic and private. Citizens are sometimes denied theirrights to interact within and consume a space, which clearlyhas been defined as public. In many cases these spaces

become temporarily branded for special events hosted bywell-known brands. In this sense “public space ismetamorphosed into private space, or at best, quasi publicspace” (Holyoak 2004: 13). It contrasts with the commonpremise where new public spaces in many European citiesare the result of investments and regeneration undertakenin order to improve the quality of life of their internal andexternal audiences. Open streets and walk-ways inEuropean cities are a clear example of ‘public spaces’ whichhave been partially privatised, also certain retaildevelopments use public space in order to generate a better

and open shopping experience.

The debates around public space would not be completewithout considering the interventions of different visualcultural disciplines like photography, design, architecture orfilm. In our modern society it is more common to see privatecompanies getting involved in the development of publicspaces, but it typically leads to controversy over the controlthat these companies should have over public spaces.


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Urban regenerationNew York and London

It is relevant to look at the case of Sony Plaza in New Yorkwhere an iconic postmodern building originally designed byPhilip Johnson – one of the most influential Americanarchitects – to host the AT&T headquarters in 1984 wastransformed into a branded urban space. Once it wasfinished, the building received criticism as it surpassed inheight the IBM headquarters which were located next to it,and for some it represented an attempt to demonstratesuperiority over a potential rival over the communicationssector. The iconic building’s features became very popularyet controversial, as it featured very large amounts of publicspace, generating connectivity and even the inclusion of anew cultural venue, the AT&T Infoquest museum that wasconsidered important to revitalise the area and increase theuse of public space. In 1992 the company decided to leavethe building as it did not meet the contemporary andmodern image that AT&T was looking for in a re-branding

process (Miller 2007).

The process to adapt the building into a Sony environmentreceived many criticisms in its plans to redesign the publicareas built around the original development.

It is important to mention that at that time the Sony brandwas part of a select group of brands that had globalinfluence and its relevance was growing. For Sony it was theperfect opportunity to base its headquarters in a primelocation in New York. But the Sony proposals included a vast

reduction in the public space area (about 8.727sq feet) to beused as retail space that was considered vital in thiseminently crowded corporative area of New York. With theredevelopment of the area, the new Sony Plaza and its SonyWonder Technology Lab replaced the AT&T Infoquest framedin a new branded and entertainment experience for New Yorkers and tourists (1992,http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE7D71738F932A35756C0A964958260, The New


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York Times).

It is worth considering that Sony justified the transformationand reduction in the amount of public space by arguing thatthe original design was very unwelcoming. Its new proposalwould incentivise retail experiences and undeniably improvethe quality of the space. The Sony Wonder Technology Labbecame a success especially with children as it wasintended by the company to get them involved with theSony community. In this context buildings and publicspaces’ characteristics and attributes acquired acontroversial association: acting as advertising tools, theyreveal and reflect values and representations of privatefirms in their attempt to generate recognition and captivatenew audiences. As Darrel Crilley (1993) suggests:

Framed within an acceptance of consumerist status quo, theintention is to create a mildly educational, entertainingarchitecture with popular commercial appeal. In fact, thearchitecture so derived is a powerful and tangible adjunct toplace advertising (Crilley 1993: 237).

Crilley (1993) describes how the critical urban discourse inthe 1980’s focused on the visuals and representations of therising redevelopment in cities in the modern world. The realimagery of the city, particularly its architecture, was lesscaptivating. “This despite the upsurge of interdisciplinarydebate over the aesthetics of the postmodern city and atendency to read landscapes through the metaphor of ‘text’” argued Crilley (1993: 231). In his views, postmodernarchitecture resulted from the economic and social shifts inthe early 1980’s, and was intended to convince consumers

and citizens of the benefits of urban regeneration, beingused as marketing tool.

Crilley’s analysis focuses on two major urbanredevelopments: Canary Wharf in London and Battery ParkCity in New York, which shared many similarities in the waythey were conceived and developed. Both are enclaveslocated in strategic and promissory areas, they host globalfinancial companies and they shared the same developers.One of the main purposes in any urban redevelopment is to


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build and generate identity and encourage urban vitality andits attached economic benefits, which are probably greatlyexpected by the public and private sector involved in theseprocesses. Crilley discuss how postmodern architecture usessymbolism and is framed within contexts of experience. “Inthe postmodern city, ‘the public’ are positioned asconsumers of visual imagery who passively receivedmeanings… prescribed for them by architects” (Crilley 1993:237).

It is interesting how the contemporary architecturediscourse has been analysed from a visual perspective. Urryargues that novel modes of visual perception in the citywere formed in the nineteenth century (Julier 2000: 120,1990: 160). In a particularly interesting approach he linksnew urban forms and their experience by the middle classesthrough to the growth of photography as a way of seeing.(Julier 2000: 120). This is the case in the new Paris of themid-nineteenth century where the redevelopment of the cityprovided wider public spaces where people would be able toenjoy better views of the cityscape, enhancing the

experience of walking and socialising in the city (Julier 2000:120). Therefore the city buildings had to acquire specificattributes that would make the visual experience unique. The city facades and public spaces became scenes to bevisually consumed.

With place advertising always trying to convince consumersof the benefits attached to architectural projects, nowadaysin order to position the projects it is necessary to simulatethem through models and computer generated images thatdisplay how the projects will look once completed. Visual

representations of these areas are transformed completelyto display the ‘real’ look of the future development.Consumers can interact with images that incorporaterepresentational features of the projects to give thesensation of reality. This type of ‘virtual reality display’ isused extensively in many redevelopment projectseverywhere in the world. It is a very important element inthe process of branding urban spaces as it creates animaginary of perceptions and meanings around unfinished


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projects.

One should consider that photography acts as a mediator inthe process of documenting consumption of urban spaces. The ability to analyse and understand the Sony Plaza casetoday is validated by the imagery that is attached to it. Thesequence of its transformation and the consequent re-branding of the urban space has been documented as anevent by architects, photographers, and urban planners andit becomes part of the history and heritage of the city of New York. In redevelopment projects like Canary Wharf inLondon, buildings and urban spaces are designed totransmit messages and representations through theirexternal attributes. These spaces become real throughimages and are branded through the visual representationsmembers of the public create from their perceptions.

The role of good design in branding urban spaces

In explaining in what way urban spaces are branded throughphotography it is important to analyse the relevance that

good design has in the creation of spaces and how theseattributes can create new values and meanings in thepublic. It is interesting to look at how the construction sectorand the bodies that regulate construction in the UK haverecognised the importance of good design and how itrepresents positive impacts in social and economicoutcomes. In this context where interactions betweenconsumers and urban spaces are a core concept, and inorder to undertake re-branding processes which in manycases include major interventions or regenerationprogrammes, urban designers and planners have conceived

the look, functionality and living characteristics of the cities,translating these ideas into plans and development projects(Bridge and Watson 2004).

It is important to consider how architects and designers areapproaching the creation of spaces and how the practice of good design takes into account the qualities thatcharacterised good urban spaces and how it is perceived bythe consumer, in this case people using public spaces.


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Urban spaces are branded through different interactions andexperiences between its users and the characteristics thatdefine the space as urban in this context photography act asmediator of these interactions. Although not discussed infurther detail in this essay, one should consider that urbandesign qualities could affect or influence walking behaviour,therefore how urban spaces are perceived and visuallyexperienced by users. It is worth considering the idea byEwing et al., where urban design qualities were identifiedaccording to the user’s relevance and through realassessments where it was measured how individualsperceived and valued their environment. By also usingdifferent urban design literature, the study concluded thatthere are nine potentially important qualities in urban designinherent to the walking experience: imageability, legibility,visual enclosure, human scale, transparency, linkage,complexity, coherence and tidiness, defined as follows:

Imageability: Is the quality of a place that makes it distinct,recognisable, and memorable.

Legibility: Refers to the ease with which the spatialstructure of a place can be understood and navigated as awhole.Enclosure: Refers to the degree to which streets and otherpublic spaces are visually defined by buildings, walls, trees,and other elements.Human Scale: Refers to a size, texture, and articulation of physical elements that match the size and proportion of humans and, equally important, correspond to the speed atwhich humans walk.Transparency: Refers to the degree to which people cansee or perceive what lies beyond the edge of a street or

other public space and, more specifically, the degree towhich people can see or perceive human activity beyond theedge.Linkage: Refers to physical and visual connections frombuilding to street, building to building, space to space, or oneside of the street to the other which tend to unify disparateelements.Complexity: Refers to the visual richness of a place. Thecomplexity of a place depends on the variety of the physicalenvironment, specifically the numbers and kinds of buildings,architectural diversity and ornamentation, landscape


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elements, street furniture, signage and human activity.Coherence: Refers to a sense or visual order. The degree of coherence is influenced by consistency and complementaryin the scale, character and arrangement of buildings,landscaping, street furniture, paving materials and otherelements.Tidiness: Refers to the condition and cleanliness of a place.A place that is untidy has visible signs of decay and disorder;a place that is tidy is well maintained and shows little sign of wear and tear. (Ewing et al. 2006: s226).

It is possible to say that besides the technicalities inherentto urban design as a discipline in the definition of thesequalities, urban design attributes are essential in visualprocesses of identification and consumption of urbanspaces. These qualities are a fundamental factor in order todetermine how the public perceives and interacts with thecity, how the city is experienced and therefore how thoseexperiences and representations are visually documented inorder to create identities and meanings. To experience acity is to contemplate scale (Jordan 2010: 137).

Commercialisation of the public space is an open debatewithin the urban planning field. The design of spaces topromote consumption is a key area of work forcontemporary architects. The Bull Ring in Birmingham,Britain’s second city, is an interesting case study containingcore elements valid for this essay. It concerns the re-branding of a traditional and emblematic urban space, whichalso involved major architectonic developments and howphotography today allows the documentation of the processof regeneration and revitalisation and is a mediator of a new

set of identities and meanings attached with theredevelopment of this significant urban space inBirmingham.

The Bull Ring area has been used as a market place sincethe twelfth century and it is a crucial part of the history anddevelopment of the city. The Bull Ring drew around itself asupportive network of other traders, businesses andeventually in the nineteenth century the first major public


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building in Birmingham, the Market Hall (Holyoak 2004: 14).With the migration of the town centre to the west, where in1875 an ambitious regeneration process led by JosephChamberlain was seeking to transform Birmingham into amodern city, the Bull Ring was displaced as a central publicspace. The main objective of the regeneration project in thewest was to remove many properties intended to hostfactory workers and their families; Chamberlain’s projecttherefore was justified in the improvement of the sanitaryconditions in the area (James 2004: 104). One shouldconsider that the widely studied phenomenon of gentrification has a clear example in this project inBirmingham, although the term was only defined almost acentury later by Ruth Glass in the early 1960’s.

It is almost certain that photography played a fundamentalrole in the process of documenting the history anddevelopment of this crucial area in Birmingham. RobertWhite Trupp documented the demolition of St Martin’s-in-the-Bull Ring among other buildings in the central area of Birmingham during Chamberlain’s Improvement Scheme. It

was the first attempt to record changes in the builtenvironment of the city back in the 1870’s (James 2004:104).

In the early 1960’s new plans were unveiled for the Bull Ringarea with the construction of the Britain’s first city-centreindoor shopping mall, which also included the developmentof the Inner Ring Road. The latter is also recognised as the‘Concrete Collar' limiting the connectivity between the towncentre and adjacent neighbourhoods, especially for walkerswho have to use intimidating subways located near the

roundabouts (2009, http://www.urbandesigncompendium.co.uk/birminghaminnerringroad? ThumbnailID=0#largeimagesection, Urban DesignCompendium).

One should consider that although the 1960’s project wasnot aesthetically and economically successful, part of theoriginal project The Rotunda, became an iconic buildingwhich has been preserved and included in the list of


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protected buildings in the UK.

After years of debate over the designs and repercussions forthe surrounding markets and its traders, as Holyoak argues,Birmingham’s market traders have ended up with a poordeal… they have lost out to the greater power of the retaildevelopers (2004: 24) referring to their peripheral locationto the inner city. In 1998, a new plan for the development of a new shopping centre by Hammerson Developers wasapproved; it included an emblematic new building forSelfridges that called attention to its futuristic design andshape. The Bull Ring became the Bullring as the newshopping centre was branded.

It is worth considering the idea that a chronologicaldocumentation process also took place in bothredevelopments. Firstly, during the 1960’s and 1970’s,Derek Fairbrother recorded the construction process using atime-lapse technique, trying to condensed series of photographs taken over the years of the construction intofew minutes of film (James 2004).

Luke Unsworth’s documentation work of the Bull Ringproject is based on monochromatic images and focuses onthe people affected by the project: “traders and shopperswho have been the backbone of the Bull Ring forgenerations gone by”. Also Michael Hallet, using acombination of digital camera and traditional film, created aseries of computer-altered panoramas of the constructionprocess. Hallet also turned his camera to the spectacle of consumerism that was and still remains at the heart of theBullring (James 2004: 112-113).

In this attempt to explain in what way urban space isbranded through photography, this essay has exploredpolemic cases where the urban space is privatised and howthe retail sector is usually associated with this process, howurban design and the qualities inherent to the disciplinedetermine the way we live and experience urban spaces andthe relevance of photography in the process of documentation of the cityscape.


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Global cities, visual culture and branded urbanspaces

In this discussion about how urban space is branded throughphotography, it is worth considering another factor thatmight lead to define a space as branded: the undeniableprocess of globalisation. Its increasing impact in thedevelopment and attributes that shape modern cities has tobe considered in order to define how cities are positionedand perceived in the modern world.

In this context in which cities operate, they arecharacterised by their competitiveness and proximity. Globalcultural flow of ethnic groups, media, technology, financeand ideologies means that place and identity may beunderstood in several different dimensions (Julier 2000:141). Among these dimensions, it is also relevant toconsider how half of the world’s population presently live inurban spaces. In order to contextualise the process of

branding of urban spaces through photography it is worthconsidering the idea of the visuals of global cities, their“urban imaginary, -mental or cognitive mappings of urbanreality and the interpretive grids-” (Soja 2000: 324) and howthey act as contributors in the generation of identities,perceptions and representations.

Cities are spaces of imagination and representation. Citiescan constrain or stimulate imagination. They are also placefor communities and integration. They contain sites wheresenses are bombarded and these can be read as sources of

pleasure (Bridge and Watson 2004).

To contextualise the existence and scale of global cities it isimportant to mention that the 1980’s marked changes in theglobal economic order with privatisations, deregulations andthe internationalisation of the economy. The role of states ascentral institutions became less apparent and it was theopportunity for regions and cities to regulate and participatein the global economic scenario. It is important to mention


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that globalisation is defined as a mechanism of integrationand simplification; it can be also seen as a process thatrequires differentiation in order to achieve competitiveness.

One should consider that the criteria to categorise global orworld cities is very diverse and involves mainly an economicrationale. Loughborough University has a complex andprecise index to classify and validate global cities or undertheir own classification, world cities. The GaWC(Globalisation and World Cities) research assesses citiesbased on their connectivity through four "advancedproducer services": accountancy, advertising,banking/finance, and law. It also ranks cities according totheir levels of integration in twelve different categories(2008) from: alpha++ (only two cities in the world reach thiscategory: London and New York), alpha+, alpha and alpha-,beta, gamma and in the lower part of the index, citiesconsidered with sufficiency in services. (2010,http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/group.html, GeographyDepartment, Lough borough University). It is possible to saythat such attempts to measure the importance and

relevance of different cities are used by public and privatesectors to generate recognition and differentiation, citiesranking the top of the indices use their position as a keyelement to construct their brands.

In the world of global cities they also have the ability to formor represent a global business. In many cases global citiesbecome core elements of the global economy, independentof their national or regional attachment. Global cities formvital networks of production and communication betweenthem, creating interdependency (Sassen 2002). It is possible

to say that they are branded but at the same time they havethe capacity to ‘brand’ products, companies, services andeven their inhabitants. As cities have become more complex, more global and morediasporic it is harder to construct cultural markers that makefor a simple image of the city with which to identify (Bridgeand Watson 2004: 13).


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Smith and Timerlake (2002) define world cities as crucialnodes in the global economy. They concentrateconsumption and production but also political-economicpower and they lead the growth of the world’s population. Itis possible to say that traditionally London, New York and Tokyo have dominated the world’s economy with theirability to intersect social-relations-stretched-overpower(Massey 2007) but the new global order is redistributing theeconomic prevalence, with in the emerging economiesgrowing significantly their economies and populations.

Lindner (2010) describes how the visual culture of the worldcities and its correlation with globalisation was the coresubject in two exhibitions, first at the Venice ArchitectureBiennale and then at the Tate Modern in London in 2007. The latter analysed ten cities in particular: Istanbul, Cairo, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mumbai,Shanghai, Sao Paulo and Tokyo exploring visually andstatistically five different themes: size, form, speed, densityand diversity. It would seem that London and its unarguablerole in the world context was a key factor to explore locally

issues such as sustainability, public space and socialinclusion (2007, http://www.tate.org.uk/modern /exhibitions/globalcities/resources.shtm, Tate Modern).

One should consider that world cities and their vast scale of representations and visual interpretations are a hugechallenge for disciplines involved in the processes of branding and urban development, and also forphotographers. Jordan (2010) describes:

Urban photography is subject to a dual impulse; on the one

had, photographers are involved in conquering scale andmaking it intelligible; on the other, the city’s spatial excess –its height, sprawl, openness, congestion– remains a subjectof fascination, even awe.

In her interesting analysis of the poetics of scale in urbanphotography, Shirley Jordan (2010) highlights works or‘experiments’ where architecture in postmodern urbanlandscapes is visually studied and analysed in its context of scale and grandiosity. These photographic projects pay main


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attention in the architectural and the experiential, theattraction for the metamorphosis of the landscape due tohuman intervention and the “human scale’ in relation topostmodern cityscapes.

In an interesting approach these works explore visually thecity from the ‘scale-induced anxiety’ of Andreas Gursky,Denis Darzacq’s documentary analysis of human scale anddwelling and the global tourist perspective in RaymondDepardon’s project (Jordan 2010).

While global cities’ scale make them complex as entities tobe branded, this does not necessarily contradict the factthat they are already ‘branded’, by their economic, social,political and cultural characteristics. Their urban spaces andhow citizens interact with and within these spaces fascinateand challenge many disciplines in their attempt to control,document and consume them.


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Conclusions

In summary, photography plays an important role in everystage of the branding process of urban space. It documentsthe process of consumption of these spaces, where by itrecords the consumption of the urban space by the public,the consumption of the visuals of the urban space and thecity or the consumption of urban space mediatised by theeconomy in the form of retail.

Photography acts as a mediator in the process of

documenting consumption of urban spaces. The ability toanalyse and understand the Sony Plaza case today isvalidated by the imagery that is attached to it. Thesequence of its transformation and the consequent re-branding of the urban space has been documented as anevent by architects, photographers, and urban planners andit becomes part of the history and heritage of the city of New York. In redevelopment projects like Canary Wharf inLondon, buildings and urban spaces are designed totransmit messages and representations through theirexternal attributes. These spaces become real through

images and are branded through the visual representationsmembers of the public create from their perceptions.

The role of architects and designers can be key to thedevelopment and branding of urban space, exploringtechnical attributes inherent to the interaction between thepublic, consumers, and citizens in their possibility tovisualise and live the city. The process of urbanregeneration is a transformation and metamorphosis of the


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spatial images and patterns of display and consumption inthe cities. Photography acts as mediator between the publicand space representations in regeneration processes. Whileit may be open to debate, the prevailing wisdom is that theprivatisation of the public space is mostly associated withlarge urban retail developments.

The new economic order and globalisation have reshapedthe role of the city. They are now global and connected, butin the same context they compete between themselves. Their challenge is to be flexible and malleable. Cities in thiscontext are studied and analysed. Their position in the worldeconomic order helps to define their character. Photographyhas a huge challenge but also opportunity to shape thevisual identity of global cities in the future.

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In What Way is Urban Space Branded Through Photography