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Photography and the Practice
of Walking_2010

How we make sense of, and move
about in, the city depends on who
we are and where we have both
come from and ‘arrived’; gender,
race, nationality and class
inevitably weigh heavily in the
equation. Walking through the city
allows a particularly unique type
of engagement with the urban
space and permits one to experience
the city at its most personal level.
Walking through the city is crucial
to creating its space:

“Their story begins on ground level,
with footsteps. They are myriad, but
do not compose a series. They
cannot be counted because each
unit has a qualitative character: a
style of tactile apprehension and
kinesthetic appropriation. Their
swarming mass is an unnumerable
collection of singularities. Their
intertwined paths give their shape
to spaces. They weave places together.
In that respect, pedestrian movements
form one of these “real systems whose
existence in fact makes up the
city.” They are not localized; it is
rather that they spatialize.” (Michel
de Certeau,The Practice of Everyday
Life, 1988: 97)

Roaming offers “rare, accidental”
or illegitimate spatial diversions and
informal social relations to manifest
themselves within a cityscape (de
Certeau, 1988: 99). Where pedestrians
choose to go offers a glimpse into others’
lives and serves both to define and to
summon into being the spaces of the
city. Both the pedestrian and the sound
of his/her footsteps are defining and
ever present in the city.

Photography and the Practice of Walking
was curated by David Kendall and Lanis
Levy and was part of Urban Encounters
2010, organised by the Centre for Urban
and Community Research at Goldsmiths,
University of London in partnership with
Tate Britain, London.

The symposium and exhibition was
sponsored by Openvizor. Interviews
are available at: www.openvizor.com
Photographs and an essay written
by Caroline Knowles can be read
at: www.viewfinder.org.uk

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