Imagery on digital and physical platforms is something that we both complicitly and submissively consume on a daily basis. In a time where image focus is identified as a class position, what significance does the poor image have?
Historically, photography has become synonymous with power, class, and privilege at a time when it was a colonial, violent and gendered tool. As photography became more widely circulated, a hierarchy of value within the class society of images has emerged. This hierarchy is based on resolution and pixilation of images. In contemporary society we are seeing the emergence of ‘poor images’ that are not assigned any value within this hierarchy; what results is digital uncertainty and a popular poor digital culture.
High-end, high-resolution rich images are viewed in opposition to low-end, low-resolution, compressed and degraded ‘poor’ images. The poor images are low in quality but have a wide-reaching accessibility in the sense that they can be made and seen by many. Whilst the economies of photography are anchored in systems of colonialism, capitalism, and the male gaze, amongst others, this project is intended to document defiance, appropriation, and conformism in a way that uses resolution and quality as a form of accessible distribution.
The images in this project are all taken on Stockwell Road in Brixton, London. Over the last few years, Brixton has been an area of increasing gentrification with rising house prices, the influx of more middle-class residents coming from neighbouring areas of Clapham and Battersea, and a change in the types of shops, bars and restaurants found on the high streets as well as Brixton Market and in Brixton railway arches. This has all contributed to the changing demographic, economics, and atmosphere of the area that some residents say are pushing out the important Caribbean heritage. I chose to base this project on Stockwell Road as the street presents a range of housing, shops, and institutions that, in comparison to other areas of Brixton, haven’t been as affected by issues of gentrification yet. Despite this, parts of the street are suggestive, in specific relation to housing, of the effects gentrification is having on the area and denote the future of Brixton if current developments continue.
The images in the book are a combination of analogue film photos that I have taken over the course of this term as well as found footage, CCTV images and google maps screenshots. I used film photography as I could control the exposure of the photo and it gave a grainy quality to the images that spoke of resolution and pixilation associated with poor image concepts. I used google maps as an alternative camera lens, using street view as a way to explore Stockwell Road and see how the area was contrastingly presented to the viewer. The intention behind the book was that the viewer would be unclear on what images I took, and which were found footage, as to blur the lines of authorship and present the images as a single body of work. By appropriating poor image concepts and taking inspiration from Arjan de Nooy’s 99:1 project, this book is intended to document and explore the gentrification issues in Brixton as well as address the changing nature of how a place is viewed or its desirability as a result of how it is presented through imagery.
