Paper Cities

Urban Portraits in Photographic Books

Edited by Susana S. Martins and Anne Reverseau

Regular price €34.50 (including 6% VAT) Sale

Edited volume - paperback

Thought-provoking case studies on cities, photographs and books. Photographic books are almost as old as photography itself, and the city is one of their first and more recurring themes. Cities have been, and they continue to be, intensely photographed under a wide variety of forms, materialities, intentions and genres. This volume examines how a city can be moulded through the particularities of a photographic book, suggesting how urban portraits configure an overlooked, yet quite specific, photo-textual practice. Ranging from early photography to contemporary works, Paper Cities gathers thought-provoking case studies from several international contexts, providing new insights into art, material culture, history, heritage and memory, while simultaneously illuminating the debate on cities, photographs and books.

This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

Contributors: Steven Jacobs (Ghent University), Simon Dell (University of East Anglia), Hugh Campbell (University College Dublin), Steven Humblet (LUCA School of Arts), Chris Balaschak (Flagler College), Annarita Teodosio (University of Salerno), Cecile Laly (Université Paris I), Mónica Pacheco (University College London), Douglas Klahr (University of Texas), Johanna M. Blokker (Bamberg University), Philip Goldswain (University of Western Australia).
Introduction. Paper Cities: Notes on a Photo-Textual Genre
Susana S. Martins and Anne Reverseau

Part 1 Photo-Textualities, between Experience and Experiment

Variétés
(1928-1930) and the Surrealist Aesthetics of Urban Picture Spreads
Steven Jacobs

After the Portrait? N.E. Thing Co.'s Portfolio of Piles
Simon Dell

Passengers: Urban Portraiture Goes Underground
Hugh Campbell

The Rhythms of the Street: The Photobook as Walkscape
Steven Humblet

Part 2 City Cartographies, from Document to Sentiment

The Slavic Court: Lewis Hine and Informal Urbanism in Homestead
Chris Balaschak

Cities from the Sky: Aerial Photography in Select 20th-Century Italian Experiences
Annarita Teodosio

Multifaceted Portraits of Tokyo in Contemporary Photobooks
Cecile Laly

Urban Representation in Photographic Books: Emotional City Mapping through The Innocence of Objects
Mónica Pacheco

Part 3 History and the Printed Politics of Memory

Nazi Stereoscopic Photobooks of Vienna and Prague: Geopolitical Propaganda Collides with a Distinctive Visual Medium
Douglas Klahr

Remembering and Experiencing German Cities in Photographic Books after World War II
Johanna M. Blokker

Picturing a City: Charles Marville's Albums of Paris
Philip Goldswain

Notes on the Authors
Notes on the Editors

Format: Edited volume - paperback

Size: 230 × 170 mm

238 pages

ISBN: 9789462700581

Publication: April 21, 2016

Languages: English

Stock item number: 108476

Anne Reverseau specialized in Photography and Modern Literature. She is currently a FWO-postdoctoral fellow at KU Leuven.


Susana S. Martins is a research fellow of the Institute of Art History and lecturer of the Art History Department at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. She specialized in photography and cultural studies.


'Paper Cities' successfully adds to the expanding field of studies on the photobook, most notably thanks to the array of thought-provoking case studies which span various cultures, histories and chronologies. The book would be a resource for scholars and students of photography history, art history, architectural history and urban studies who specifically have an interest in space, place, cities, cultural memory and material culture.
Alexandra Tommasini, Visual Studies, Vol. 32 , Issue 3, 2017
  Visual Studies

'Paper Cities' stands out as a useful and stimulating collection of essays that confront core issues of urban photography from a variety of methodological perspectives -; a timely contribution that will certainly spur further scholarship in the years to come.
Antonello Frongia, rivista di studi di fotografia · n. 3, 2016