The Photogenic City: Aerial Photography and Urban Visions in Europe, 1914-1945. Ph.D ...

234 Pages·2010·12.45 MB·English

DAVIDE DERIU
The Photogenic City:
Aerial Photography and Urban Visions
in Europe, 1914-1945.
Ph.D. Research Degree
Architectural History and Theory
The Bartlett
Faculty of the Built Environment
University College London
March 2004
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ILLUSTRATIONS AT THE
BACK OF THE BOOK
HAVE NOT BEEN
DIGITISED ON
INSTRUCTION FROM THE
UNIVERSITY
Abstract of Thesis
The thesis investigates the relationship between photography and urban visions in
Europe in the period 1914-1945. It focuses in particular on the impact of the aerial gaze
upon the ways in which the modern city was perceived and represented. The
theoretical background for this inquiry is provided by contemporary debates on
photography and visual culture, which are brought to bear on the study of urban
representations. The main body of the argument is divided into three parts: 'Aerial
Inspections', 'Aerial Imaginations', and 'Aerial Illustrations'. The first part discusses the
urban imagery produced within the field of air reconnaissance photography, with
particular regard to World War II. The second part charts the rise of an aerial
imagination in avant-garde photography, which reconfigured the city as the site and
subject of a modern way of seeing. The third part looks at how 'applied' aerial
photography was instrumental to illustrate urban visions across various discursive
fields, namely tourism, journalism, and urbanism; this section concludes with a case
study on the aerial imagery of interwar London, based on the production of a leading
air survey company. Besides pinpointing the modes of representation specific to each
of these practices, the thesis also describes the traffic of images and the flow of
meanings that occurred across their boundaries. It is finally argued that a new urban
visuality was the result of the procedures introduced by aerial photography; the
photogenic city emerged as a contested field of representation marked out by an
underlying tension between spectacle and surveillance.
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Contents
Abstract of Thesis
List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
Theories
I. The city in the field of photographic vision.
1. Visuality: the modern city as a field of perception.
2. Photography: theoretical and critical perspectives.
Histories
II. Aerial inspections
1. Landscapes of reconnaissance: war, photography, and the city.
2. Imaging ruination: aerial photography and the scenery of urban destruction.
3. Between veiling and unveiling: camouflage and the city in disguise.
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III. Aerial imaginations
1. Camera ludica: modern photography and the city as a laboratory of perceptions.
2. Shifting perspectives: urban views on the path to abstraction.
3. Flights from the everyday: the aerial gaze and the pursuit of visual vertigo.
IV. Aerial illustrations
1. Sightseeing from above: illustrated travelogues and urban panoramas.
2. Reporting construction: photo-journalism and the iconography of progress.
3. Picturing tomorrow: projects and projections for the modern city.
4. Surveying a metropolis: inter-war London in the photographs of 'Aerofilms Ltd'.
Conclusion
Archives and Libraries
Bibliography
III ustrations
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List of Illustrations
Tables:
Table 1: The dual model of the city according to de Certeau (1984). My
elaboration.
Figures:
1. "Puzzle Pictures" (n.d.). R.A.F. reconnaissance photograph. Source: Imperial
War Museum (C:4857).
2. "Puzzle Pictures" (n.d.). R.A.F. reconnaissance photograph. Source: Imperial
War Museum (C:4065).
3. Great Britain, Air Ministry, "Zone Maps: Typical Examples of City Zones."
Source: The British Library, Maps Collection, M.o.D. Section.
4. Aerial view of the Nikolaivorstadt district in Breslau. Photograph by Robert
Petschow. Source: Diesel (1931:210).
5. "Damage Plotting by Air Photography" (July 1943). R.A. F. reconnaissance
photograph of air raid over Hamburg." Source: Imperial War Museum (C.3832).
6. "Berlin" (n.d.). R.A.F. reconnaissance photograph. Source: Imperial War
Museum (C.3044.A).
7. Cover page, The Illustrated London News, 1t h July, 1943.
8. "Hohenzollern Bridge, Cologne" (1945). R.A.F. reconnaissance photograph.
Source: Imperial War Museum (C.5048).
9. "Cologne: Before and After Photographs" (n.d.). R.A.F. reconnaissance
photograph. Source: Imperial War Museum (C.5028).
10. "Cologne: Before and After Photographs" (spring 1944). R.A.F. reconnaissance
photograph. Source: Imperial War Museum (C.5027).
11. Camouflage plan for a "faux Paris". Published in L'lIIustration, 2 Oct. 1920, p.
246.
12. "Modern camouflage: pattern painting on a small factory located in an urban
area". Source: Breckenridge (1942:132).
13. "R.A.F. Spots Camouflage in Hamburg" (n.d.). R.A.F. reconnaissance
photograph. Source: Imperial War Museum (C.1931).
14. The Binnen Alster in Hamburg after camouflage (April 1941). R.A. F.
reconnaissance photograph. Source: Imperial War Museum (C.1932).
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15. Andre Kertesz, "Meudon, Paris" (1928).
16. Alvin Langdon Coburn, "The Octopus, New York" (1909).
17. Andre Kertesz, "Eiffel Tower, Paris" (1928).
18. Andre Kertesz, "Intersection, Blois, France" (1930).
19. Umbo [Otto Umbehr], "Mystery of the Street" (1928).
20. Umbo [Otto Umbehr], "Uncanny Street" (1928).
21. Cover page of Es kommt der neue Fotograf! Image credited to the 'Presse-
Photo' agency, Berlin. Source: Graff (1929).
22. Lazl6 Moholy-Nagy, "Radio Tower, Berlin" (1925).
23. Lazl6 Moholy-Nagy, "Vieux Port, Marseille" (1929).
24. Aleksandr Rodchenko, "Assembling for a Demonstration" (1928).
25. Boris Ignatovich, "Monument to F. Lassalle, Leningrad" (1931).
26. Aleksandr Rodchenko, "Okhotnyi Row, Moscow" (1932).
27. Nadar [Gaspard-Felix Tournachon], "Premier Resultat de Photographie
Aerostatique" (1858).
28. Filippo Masoero, "Dynamised View of the Roman Forum" (1934).
29. Man Ray, "Dust Breeding" (1920).
30. Kasimir Malevich, "The environment that stimulates the Suprematist artist"
(1927).
31. Robert Petschow, "The Giant Toy." Pages from an article published in Berliner
lIIustrirte Zeitung, n. 2, 11th Jan. 1925, pp. 36-7.
32. "Europe from the Air. A morning mist creeps over Edinburgh". Photograph by
Capt. Alfred Buckham. Source: Thomas (1928:2).
33. "Holland looks Dutch from the sky". Source: Thomas (1928:48).
34. "The Louvre". Source: Thomas (1928:102).
35. "The ghost-like domes of Sacre Coeur". Source: Thomas (1928:321).
36. "Looking down upon the Acropolis at Athens". Photograph by Sir Alan J.
Cobham. Source: Cobham (1928:357).
37. "Australia's new capital is rising in the raw and open country". Photograph by
Royal Australian Air Force. Source: Cobham (1928:380).
38. "An aerial view showing Rio de Janeiro's Avenida Rio Branco, cut through the
heart of the city". Photograph by Capt. Albert W. Stevens. Source: de Pinedo
(1928:265).
39. Cover page, U.S.S.R. in Construction, n. 9,1931. Photomontage by John
Heartfield.
40. "Towns are rising." Photograph published in U.S.S.R. in Construction, n. 9,
1931.
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41. Yearly parade in the Red Square, Moscow. Photograph published in U.S.S.R. in
Construction, n. 9, 1931.
42. Yearly parade in the Red Square, Moscow. Photograph published in U.S.S.R. in
Construction, n. 9, 1931.
43. "New Baths, Leningrad". Photographs published in U.S.S.R. in Construction, n.
11, 1931.
44. "The 120th school in the Volodarsky district, Leningrad." Paired photographs
published in U.S.S.R. in Construction, n. 11, 1931.
45. "Winter Palace, Leningrad." Photograph published in U.S.S.R. in Construction,
n.11,1931.
46. "Le realizzazioni dell'Opera Nazionale Combattenti nell'Agro Ponti no" (46a),
and details of "Littoria seen from above" and "Aerial view of Sabaudia" (46b).
Photographs published in La Rivista lIIustrata del Popolo d'ita/ia (Special Issue),
Vol. XIV, 1936, n.p.
47. "Sabaudia from the aeroplane" (n.d.). Postcard produced by Nalin Olga, from a
photograph by U. Piazzesi. Source: Carfagna et al. (1998:205).
48. "View of Bengazi" (top), "Asmara seen from the aeroplane" (centre), "Panorama
of Mogadishu" (bottom). Photographs published in La Rivista lIIustrata del
Popolo d'ita/ia (Special Issue), Vol. XIV, 1936.
49. "Pont Transbordeur and Harbor of Marseilles". Source: Giedion (1928:90).
50. "Eiffel Tower". Source: Giedion (1928:91).
51. "Eiffel Tower. View from the second platform to the first". Source: Giedion
(1928: 144).
52. "Suspended stairs within the Eiffel Tower". Source: Giedion (1928:145).
53. "Pont Transbordeur. View from the elevated gangway". Source: Giedion
(1928:147).
54. "View of Houses from Pont Transbordeur, Marseilles". Source: Giedion
(1928:148).
55. "Roof of the Rue Marbeuf garage, Paris". Source: Giedion (1928: 204).
56. "The platform of an airplane carrier at sea". Source: Le Corbusier
(1929/1971: 156).
57. "View from the top of the Eiffel Tower". Source: Le Corbusier (1929/1971 :187).
58. Vertical photograph of Paris. Source: Le Corbusier (1929/1971 :284).
59. Plan Voisin, photo-montage. Source: Le Corbusier (1929/1971 :289).
60. Cover page, Das Neue Frankfurt, n. 1, 1926.
61. Picture postcard of Rio de Janeiro. Source: Le Corbusier (1933/1967:223).
62. Aerial photograph of Algiers (above) and view of model for 'Project A' (below).
Source: Le Corbusier and Jeanneret (1946: 143).
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63. "Aerofilms Ltd. and National Aviation Day" (1933). Advertising leaflet. Source:
Aerofilms archives.
64. "Central London from the Air" (1927). London Underground poster, based on a
photograph by Aerofilms. Source: Aerofilms archives.
65. "Tower of London". Photograph by Aerofilms. Source: Morton (1926).
66. "The new head offices of the Underground Railway, London." Aerial view
published in The Architectural Review, vol. LXVI, n. 396, Nov. 1929, p. 225.
Photograph by Aerofilms.
67. "A London suburb". Photograph by Aerofilms. Source: Le Corbusier
(1929/1971 :ii).
68. "Typical London houses". Photograph by Aerofilms. Source: Rasmussen
(1960:42).
69. "A typical London suburb". Photograph by Aerofilms. Source: Le Corbusier
(1929/1971 :n.p.).
70. "Typical London houses". Photograph by Aerofilms. Source: Rasmussen
(1937:303).
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Preface and Acknowledgments
The research that has led to this thesis has been anything but linear. To misquote Le
Corbusier, it followed a meandering 'donkey's path' rather than a straight line. The
subject matter itself has spiralled out of its initial definition, which stemmed from my
interest in street photography. My early research proposal focused on the work of
Andre Kertesz, Humphrey Spender and Bill Brandt. As it turned out, my enduring
fascination with Kertesz's well-known photograph of 'Meudon' (discussed in § 111.1) led
me to investigate the forms of vertigo induced by aerial views of cities. The
serendipitous discovery that Meudon was also the site of the first Aeronaut Company in
the eighteenth century kindled my growing interest in the field of aerial photography. By
another coincidence, instead of researching Humphrey Spender's street photographs I
ended up dealing with the institutions in which his brother Michael worked as a
photogrammetric expert (at the Aircraft Operating Company, of which Aerofilms Ltd.
was a division, and later at the R.A.F. Central Interpretation Unit in Medmenham). The
realisation that the archives of the Imperial War Museum have the largest collection of
photographs in Great Britain also made me wonder if there may be anything of interest
in that place for architectural history.
On a more personal note, the research bears the trace of my relationship with
several cities, whether it be based on my direct experience or on a distant and
imaginary grasp of them. London, in particular, is the city where most of the thesis has
been conceived and written. Although the research stubbornly avoids the monographic
'one-city' approach, it does include a final section dedicated to London. To end a
dissertation that is heavily shaped by the tension between panoramic and the
panoptical vision, I felt it appropriate to focus on the city that was the birthplace of both
th
visual models - which, coincidentally, emerged around the same time in the late 18
century. The haunting presence of Jeremy Bentham through the corridors of University
College could only strengthen my desire to get to grips with some of the consequences
of his architectural model - the Panopticon. My critical discussion of theories of
spectacle and surveillance starts with Michel de Certeau's oft-quoted description of
Manhattan seen from the top of the World Trade Centre. I have kept my theory
chapter, which I drafted in my early years of research, largely unchanged
notwithstanding the events of September 2001, with the conviction that the relevance
of de Certeau's argument has not diminished since the twin towers were destroyed.
A number of inputs from people, places, and situations have shaped the
trajectory of this thesis. The first motivation for research came from a seminar I
presented during the M.Sc. in History of Modern Architecture at the Bartlett in 1997.
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