Juan Veloza

In what way is urban space branded through photography?

essay submitted as part of the MA in Brand Development Goldsmiths University of London 2011

Introduction Since its origins, photography has sought to capture and frame the visual language of the urban space. Its evolution has been a parallel process in order to meet the ongoing process of change. The branding process of the urban space is very often connected with urban regeneration and development, but it can be also linked to economic and social factors that define attributes or characteristics that permit cities to be recognised and differentiated. Photography documents and mediates in this process where the public consumes and interacts in and within cities and urban spaces. Photographs are valued because they give information (Sontag 2002: 22). This essay will examine firstly notions of consumption and branding framed in the current economic order in an attempt to analyse in what way urban space is branded through 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 in New York and Birmingham where the core debate was the privatisation of the public space. The latter will examine the intervention of photography in the chronologic documentation of the process and its role as mediator between the public and space representations. Finally, this essay will consider notions of globalisation. How cities become global and how their scale and imaginary is perceived and associated. It looks at the visual approach of

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the city scale of Shirley Jordan. These associations and perceptions are often linked with recognition and positioning which are fundamental in branding cities and urban spaces. Photography does not simply reproduce the real, it recycles it. (Sontag: 174)

Culture and consumption driving regeneration The identification of urban spaces through emblematic buildings 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, Parliaments clock tower in London, the Colosseum in Rome among others are introduced in different systems of representation to become symbols of location. This imagery is probably the most basic way of visual consumption to identify a space. Needing to have reality confirmed and experience enhanced by photographs is an aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted (Sontag 2002: 24). When we construct our perceptions of places we visit some element of media culture generally enters as a communicative, interpretative or inspirational device (Arvidsson 2006:12) It is almost certain that space identification has evolved into a more exceptional strategy to recognise and differentiate spaces. In this attempt to explain in what ways urban spaces are branded through photography we should consider first the analysis of the interactions between people and urban spaces. 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. Consumers establish social relations, emotions, identities and community sense. Consumption is a critical site in which identities, 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 it and also always involves cultural and economic factors (Douglas and Isherwood 1979 quoted in Lury 1996). It would appear that changes in consumers behaviour in the last twenty years led to the rise of the study of consumption as a theory. Baudrillard describes it as:
The whole discourse on consumption, whether learned or lay, is articulated on the mythological sequence of the fable: a man, endowed with needs which direct him towards objects that give satisfaction. Since man is never really satisfied (for which, by the way, he is reproached), the same history is repeated indefinitely since the time of ancient fables (Baudrillard 1988: 35).

Within these processes of consumption is evident the construction of communities of citizens or consumers around urban spaces or products. As Muniz and OGuinn stated ordinary suburban Americans readily form communities around brands like Saab, Bronco or Macintosh (quoted in Arvidsson 2006:19). In this context, the brand communication objective is to make sure representations and meanings that consumers have of products, companies, cities and urban spaces among others are framed within those contained in the brand. It implies a further challenge for brand specialists: as consumers are active entities, brands messages tend to be perceived differently by external and internal audiences. Advertising has historically spectacular and eye-catching (Moor 2007: 39). Branding traditional advertising, which in been the most visible, of the marketing functions as a discipline confronts its traditional form produces

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models or representations to which consumers are expected to identify. It is presumptuous to attempt to have a single definition of branding, but it is essential to mention its relationship with design, a discipline with a preponderant importance in the new economic and social environment. Branding has the capacity to change consumers perceptions towards determined and methodically defined spaces. Its development has increased the attention consumers or citizens have in those spaces, environments or places where they interact with their preferred products or services. One might also consider that the increased use of branding, with its inherent interactions between consumers or citizens and 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 in recent years governments and institutions have also used branding in order to redefine their public image and identity (among internal and external audiences) and to generate economic 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 the 2008-9 economic recession have changed the global order, increasing proximity between cities, regions and countries and therefore competition to attract investment and tourism. It is likely that shifts in developed economies from manufacturing to service industries and with the cost of labour becoming competitively reduced in the developing world, cities and regions - especially in Europe and North America - must find alternative ways to persuade established businesses to remain on site or must encourage new funding or investment from private or government sources (Moor 2007: 74). Architecture and spaces of consumption

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It is particularly interesting to consider the role of designers and architects in the construction of the cityscape and the inherent visual understanding of urban space. Also the importance of photography in this processes of regeneration and construction of urban interpretations. The visual culture of urban regeneration is a key aspect in this process to discuss in what way urban space is branded through photography. Regeneration programmes across cities in Europe and North America have generally focused on the use of culture and arts as their primary concept for intervention. It has even been highly promoted through initiatives like the European Capital of Culture, which allows the host city to organise cultural events with a European impact. The initiative is also an opportunity for the city to invest in cultural infrastructure and regeneration and to revamp its image internationally. It seems to be the perfect opportunity for cities to integrate art and cultural practices within the regeneration of urban fabrics and communities (Kennedy 2004: 6). The benefits of this initiative are well documented in the case of Liverpool 2008. Its success and experience in cultural-led urban regeneration became a key aspiration for new candidates. The programme changed the characteristic and stereotypical image of the citys social deprivation. Its benefits included high community participation (66% of the residents took part in at least one cultural activity), a significant increase in the number of visitors to the city (up by 35% in 2008) and beneficial impacts on its economy. It was not just Liverpool that benefited, it also contributed to developments and improvements in the entire Merseyside region to which Liverpool belongs. In general the internal and external perceptions of Liverpool citizens has changed, and today Liverpools image has improved considerably (2010, http://www.liv.ac.uk/impacts08/, University of Liverpool). The city uses its contrasting imagery, where citizens are interacting and participating in its revitalised cultural life, with magnificent architecture and cultural venues to emphasise its modern and cultural character to its

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inhabitants and also to attract the interest of potential visitors and investors. Its successful regeneration programme will also be supported through the visual documentation of the process and commitment of Liverpools citizens. Space is a frequented place, Michel de Certeau In this discussion about the branding process of urban space through photography it is essential to consider the importance of public space especially in the post-industrial era and the debates around its significance in modern cities. Cities have always been the meeting point of different populations (Aristotle 1992, Southall, 1998, Manadipour 2004: 268), and are characterised by the relevance of a central place where many activities converge. In modern cities the public space concept has changed and it is openly controlled and driven by many different interests, both public and private. Citizens are sometimes denied their rights to interact within and consume a space, which clearly has been defined as public. In many cases these spaces become temporarily branded for special events hosted by well-known brands. In this sense public space is metamorphosed into private space, or at best, quasi public space (Holyoak 2004: 13). It contrasts with the common premise where new public spaces in many European cities are the result of investments and regeneration undertaken in order to improve the quality of life of their internal and external audiences. Open streets and walk-ways in European cities are a clear example of public spaces which have been partially privatised, also certain retail developments use public space in order to generate a better and open shopping experience. The debates around public space would not be complete without considering the interventions of different visual cultural disciplines like photography, design, architecture or film. In our modern society it is more common to see private companies getting involved in the development of public spaces, but it typically leads to controversy over the control that these companies should have over public spaces.

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Urban regeneration New York and London It is relevant to look at the case of Sony Plaza in New York where an iconic postmodern building originally designed by Philip Johnson one of the most influential American architects to host the AT&T headquarters in 1984 was transformed into a branded urban space. Once it was finished, the building received criticism as it surpassed in height the IBM headquarters which were located next to it, and for some it represented an attempt to demonstrate superiority over a potential rival over the communications sector. The iconic buildings features became very popular yet controversial, as it featured very large amounts of public space, generating connectivity and even the inclusion of a new cultural venue, the AT&T Infoquest museum that was considered important to revitalise the area and increase the use of public space. In 1992 the company decided to leave the building as it did not meet the contemporary and modern image that AT&T was looking for in a re-branding process (Miller 2007). The process to adapt the building into a Sony environment received many criticisms in its plans to redesign the public areas built around the original development. It is important to mention that at that time the Sony brand was part of a select group of brands that had global influence and its relevance was growing. For Sony it was the perfect opportunity to base its headquarters in a prime location in New York. But the Sony proposals included a vast reduction in the public space area (about 8.727sq feet) to be used as retail space that was considered vital in this eminently crowded corporative area of New York. With the redevelopment of the area, the new Sony Plaza and its Sony Wonder Technology Lab replaced the AT&T Infoquest framed in 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 transformation and reduction in the amount of public space by arguing that the original design was very unwelcoming. Its new proposal would incentivise retail experiences and undeniably improve the quality of the space. The Sony Wonder Technology Lab became a success especially with children as it was intended by the company to get them involved with the Sony community. In this context buildings and public spaces characteristics and attributes acquired a controversial association: acting as advertising tools, they reveal and reflect values and representations of private firms in their attempt to generate recognition and captivate new audiences. As Darrel Crilley (1993) suggests:
Framed within an acceptance of consumerist status quo, the intention is to create a mildly educational, entertaining architecture with popular commercial appeal. In fact, the architecture so derived is a powerful and tangible adjunct to place advertising (Crilley 1993: 237).

Crilley (1993) describes how the critical urban discourse in the 1980s focused on the visuals and representations of the rising redevelopment in cities in the modern world. The real imagery of the city, particularly its architecture, was less captivating. This despite the upsurge of interdisciplinary debate over the aesthetics of the postmodern city and a tendency to read landscapes through the metaphor of text argued Crilley (1993: 231). In his views, postmodern architecture resulted from the economic and social shifts in the early 1980s, and was intended to convince consumers and citizens of the benefits of urban regeneration, being used as marketing tool. Crilleys analysis focuses on two major urban redevelopments: Canary Wharf in London and Battery Park City in New York, which shared many similarities in the way they were conceived and developed. Both are enclaves located in strategic and promissory areas, they host global financial 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 and its attached economic benefits, which are probably greatly expected by the public and private sector involved in these processes. Crilley discuss how postmodern architecture uses symbolism and is framed within contexts of experience. In the postmodern city, the public are positioned as consumers of visual imagery who passively received meanings prescribed for them by architects (Crilley 1993: 237). It is interesting how the contemporary architecture discourse has been analysed from a visual perspective. Urry argues that novel modes of visual perception in the city were formed in the nineteenth century (Julier 2000: 120, 1990: 160). In a particularly interesting approach he links new urban forms and their experience by the middle classes through to the growth of photography as a way of seeing. (Julier 2000: 120). This is the case in the new Paris of the mid-nineteenth century where the redevelopment of the city provided wider public spaces where people would be able to enjoy 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 specific attributes that would make the visual experience unique. The city facades and public spaces became scenes to be visually consumed. With place advertising always trying to convince consumers of the benefits attached to architectural projects, nowadays in order to position the projects it is necessary to simulate them through models and computer generated images that display how the projects will look once completed. Visual representations of these areas are transformed completely to display the real look of the future development. Consumers can interact with images that incorporate representational features of the projects to give the sensation of reality. This type of virtual reality display is used extensively in many redevelopment projects everywhere in the world. It is a very important element in the process of branding urban spaces as it creates an imaginary of perceptions and meanings around unfinished

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projects. One should consider that photography acts as a mediator in the process of documenting consumption of urban spaces. The ability to analyse and understand the Sony Plaza case today is validated by the imagery that is attached to it. The sequence of its transformation and the consequent rebranding of the urban space has been documented as an event by architects, photographers, and urban planners and it becomes part of the history and heritage of the city of New York. In redevelopment projects like Canary Wharf in London, buildings and urban spaces are designed to transmit messages and representations through their external attributes. These spaces become real through images and are branded through the visual representations members 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 through photography it is important to analyse the relevance that good design has in the creation of spaces and how these attributes can create new values and meanings in the public. It is interesting to look at how the construction sector and the bodies that regulate construction in the UK have recognised the importance of good design and how it represents positive impacts in social and economic outcomes. In this context where interactions between consumers and urban spaces are a core concept, and in order to undertake re-branding processes which in many cases include major interventions or regeneration programmes, 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 are approaching the creation of spaces and how the practice of good design takes into account the qualities that characterised good urban spaces and how it is perceived by the consumer, in this case people using public spaces.

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Urban spaces are branded through different interactions and experiences between its users and the characteristics that define the space as urban in this context photography act as mediator of these interactions. Although not discussed in further detail in this essay, one should consider that urban design qualities could affect or influence walking behaviour, therefore how urban spaces are perceived and visually experienced by users. It is worth considering the idea by Ewing et al., where urban design qualities were identified according to the users relevance and through real assessments where it was measured how individuals perceived and valued their environment. By also using different urban design literature, the study concluded that there are nine potentially important qualities in urban design inherent 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 spatial structure of a place can be understood and navigated as a whole. Enclosure: Refers to the degree to which streets and other public 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 at which humans walk. Transparency: Refers to the degree to which people can see or perceive what lies beyond the edge of a street or other public space and, more specifically, the degree to which people can see or perceive human activity beyond the edge. Linkage: Refers to physical and visual connections from building to street, building to building, space to space, or one side of the street to the other which tend to unify disparate elements. Complexity: Refers to the visual richness of a place. The complexity of a place depends on the variety of the physical environment, 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 complementary in the scale, character and arrangement of buildings, landscaping, street furniture, paving materials and other elements. 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 inherent to urban design as a discipline in the definition of these qualities, urban design attributes are essential in visual processes of identification and consumption of urban spaces. These qualities are a fundamental factor in order to determine how the public perceives and interacts with the city, how the city is experienced and therefore how those experiences and representations are visually documented in order to create identities and meanings. To experience a city is to contemplate scale (Jordan 2010: 137). Commercialisation of the public space is an open debate within the urban planning field. The design of spaces to promote consumption is a key area of work for contemporary architects. The Bull Ring in Birmingham, Britains second city, is an interesting case study containing core elements valid for this essay. It concerns the rebranding of a traditional and emblematic urban space, which also involved major architectonic developments and how photography today allows the documentation of the process of regeneration and revitalisation and is a mediator of a new set of identities and meanings attached with the redevelopment of this significant urban space in Birmingham. The Bull Ring area has been used as a market place since the twelfth century and it is a crucial part of the history and development of the city. The Bull Ring drew around itself a supportive network of other traders, businesses and eventually 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 in 1875 an ambitious regeneration process led by Joseph Chamberlain was seeking to transform Birmingham into a modern city, the Bull Ring was displaced as a central public space. The main objective of the regeneration project in the west was to remove many properties intended to host factory workers and their families; Chamberlains project therefore was justified in the improvement of the sanitary conditions in the area (James 2004: 104). One should consider that the widely studied phenomenon of gentrification has a clear example in this project in Birmingham, although the term was only defined almost a century later by Ruth Glass in the early 1960s. It is almost certain that photography played a fundamental role in the process of documenting the history and development of this crucial area in Birmingham. Robert White Trupp documented the demolition of St Martins-inthe-Bull Ring among other buildings in the central area of Birmingham during Chamberlains Improvement Scheme. It was the first attempt to record changes in the built environment of the city back in the 1870s (James 2004: 104). In the early 1960s new plans were unveiled for the Bull Ring area with the construction of the Britains first city-centre indoor shopping mall, which also included the development of the Inner Ring Road. The latter is also recognised as the Concrete Collar' limiting the connectivity between the town centre and adjacent neighbourhoods, especially for walkers who have to use intimidating subways located near the roundabouts (2009, http://www.urbande signcompendium.co.uk/birminghaminnerringroad? ThumbnailID=0#largeimagesection, Urban Design Compendium). One should consider that although the 1960s project was not aesthetically and economically successful, part of the original project The Rotunda, became an iconic building which 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 for the surrounding markets and its traders, as Holyoak argues, Birminghams market traders have ended up with a poor deal they have lost out to the greater power of the retail developers (2004: 24) referring to their peripheral location to the inner city. In 1998, a new plan for the development of a new shopping centre by Hammerson Developers was approved; it included an emblematic new building for Selfridges that called attention to its futuristic design and shape. The Bull Ring became the Bullring as the new shopping centre was branded. It is worth considering the idea that a chronological documentation process also took place in both redevelopments. Firstly, during the 1960s and 1970s, Derek Fairbrother recorded the construction process using a time-lapse technique, trying to condensed series of photographs taken over the years of the construction into few minutes of film (James 2004). Luke Unsworths documentation work of the Bull Ring project is based on monochromatic images and focuses on the people affected by the project: traders and shoppers who have been the backbone of the Bull Ring for generations gone by. Also Michael Hallet, using a combination of digital camera and traditional film, created a series of computer-altered panoramas of the construction process. Hallet also turned his camera to the spectacle of consumerism that was and still remains at the heart of the Bullring (James 2004: 112-113). In this attempt to explain in what way urban space is branded through photography, this essay has explored polemic cases where the urban space is privatised and how the retail sector is usually associated with this process, how urban design and the qualities inherent to the discipline determine the way we live and experience urban spaces and the relevance of photography in the process of documentation of the cityscape.

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Global cities, spaces

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In this discussion about how urban space is branded through photography, it is worth considering another factor that might lead to define a space as branded: the undeniable process of globalisation. Its increasing impact in the development and attributes that shape modern cities has to be considered in order to define how cities are positioned and perceived in the modern world. In this context in which cities operate, they are characterised by their competitiveness and proximity. Global cultural flow of ethnic groups, media, technology, finance and ideologies means that place and identity may be understood in several different dimensions (Julier 2000: 141). Among these dimensions, it is also relevant to consider how half of the worlds population presently live in urban spaces. In order to contextualise the process of branding of urban spaces through photography it is worth considering the idea of the visuals of global cities, their urban imaginary, -mental or cognitive mappings of urban reality and the interpretive grids- (Soja 2000: 324) and how they act as contributors in the generation of identities, perceptions and representations. Cities are spaces of imagination and representation. Cities can constrain or stimulate imagination. They are also place for communities and integration. They contain sites where senses 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 is important to mention that the 1980s marked changes in the global economic order with privatisations, deregulations and the internationalisation of the economy. The role of states as central institutions became less apparent and it was the opportunity for regions and cities to regulate and participate in the global economic scenario. It is important to mention

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that globalisation is defined as a mechanism of integration and simplification; it can be also seen as a process that requires differentiation in order to achieve competitiveness. One should consider that the criteria to categorise global or world cities is very diverse and involves mainly an economic rationale. Loughborough University has a complex and precise index to classify and validate global cities or under their own classification, world cities. The GaWC (Globalisation and World Cities) research assesses cities based on their connectivity through four "advanced producer services": accountancy, advertising, banking/finance, and law. It also ranks cities according to their levels of integration in twelve different categories (2008) from: alpha++ (only two cities in the world reach this category: London and New York), alpha+, alpha and alpha-, beta, gamma and in the lower part of the index, cities considered with sufficiency in services. (2010, http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/group.html, Geography Department, Lough borough University). It is possible to say that such attempts to measure the importance and relevance of different cities are used by public and private sectors to generate recognition and differentiation, cities ranking the top of the indices use their position as a key element to construct their brands. In the world of global cities they also have the ability to form or represent a global business. In many cases global cities become core elements of the global economy, independent of their national or regional attachment. Global cities form vital networks of production and communication between them, creating interdependency (Sassen 2002). It is possible to say that they are branded but at the same time they have the capacity to brand products, companies, services and even their inhabitants. As cities have become more complex, more global and more diasporic it is harder to construct cultural markers that make for a simple image of the city with which to identify (Bridge and Watson 2004: 13).

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Smith and Timerlake (2002) define world cities as crucial nodes in the global economy. They concentrate consumption and production but also political-economic power and they lead the growth of the worlds population. It is possible to say that traditionally London, New York and Tokyo have dominated the worlds economy with their ability to intersect social-relations-stretched-overpower (Massey 2007) but the new global order is redistributing the economic prevalence, with in the emerging economies growing significantly their economies and populations. Lindner (2010) describes how the visual culture of the world cities and its correlation with globalisation was the core subject in two exhibitions, first at the Venice Architecture Biennale 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 and statistically five different themes: size, form, speed, density and diversity. It would seem that London and its unarguable role in the world context was a key factor to explore locally issues such as sustainability, public space and social inclusion (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 huge challenge for disciplines involved in the processes of branding and urban development, and also for photographers. Jordan (2010) describes:
Urban photography is subject to a dual impulse; on the one had, photographers are involved in conquering scale and making it intelligible; on the other, the citys spatial excess its height, sprawl, openness, congestion remains a subject of fascination, even awe.

In her interesting analysis of the poetics of scale in urban photography, Shirley Jordan (2010) highlights works or experiments where architecture in postmodern urban landscapes 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, the attraction for the metamorphosis of the landscape due to human intervention and the human scale in relation to postmodern cityscapes. In an interesting approach these works explore visually the city from the scale-induced anxiety of Andreas Gursky, Denis Darzacqs documentary analysis of human scale and dwelling and the global tourist perspective in Raymond Depardons project (Jordan 2010). While global cities scale make them complex as entities to be branded, this does not necessarily contradict the fact that they are already branded, by their economic, social, political and cultural characteristics. Their urban spaces and how citizens interact with and within these spaces fascinate and 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 every stage of the branding process of urban space. It documents the process of consumption of these spaces, where by it records the consumption of the urban space by the public, the consumption of the visuals of the urban space and the city or the consumption of urban space mediatised by the economy in the form of retail. Photography acts as a mediator in the process of documenting consumption of urban spaces. The ability to analyse and understand the Sony Plaza case today is validated by the imagery that is attached to it. The sequence of its transformation and the consequent rebranding of the urban space has been documented as an event by architects, photographers, and urban planners and it becomes part of the history and heritage of the city of New York. In redevelopment projects like Canary Wharf in London, buildings and urban spaces are designed to transmit messages and representations through their external attributes. These spaces become real through images and are branded through the visual representations members of the public create from their perceptions. The role of architects and designers can be key to the development and branding of urban space, exploring technical attributes inherent to the interaction between the public, consumers, and citizens in their possibility to visualise and live the city. The process of urban regeneration is a transformation and metamorphosis of the

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spatial images and patterns of display and consumption in the cities. Photography acts as mediator between the public and space representations in regeneration processes. While it may be open to debate, the prevailing wisdom is that the privatisation of the public space is mostly associated with large urban retail developments. The new economic order and globalisation have reshaped the role of the city. They are now global and connected, but in the same context they compete between themselves. Their challenge is to be flexible and malleable. Cities in this context are studied and analysed. Their position in the world economic order helps to define their character. Photography has a huge challenge but also opportunity to shape the visual identity of global cities in the future.

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accessed 17.01.11. Ewing, R., Hardy, S., Browson R., Clemente, O., Winston, E. (2006), Identifying and Measuring Urban Design Qualities Related to Walkability, Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 3, Suppl. 1, S223-S240. Garcia B., Melville Ruth & Cox T., (2010), Creating an Impact: Liverpool's experience as European Capital of Culture. http://www.liv.ac.uk/impacts08/. pdf file, accesed 16.01.11. GaWC Research Network, http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/group.html, web site, accessed 18.01.11. Glass, R. (1963), London: Aspects of change. Centre for Urban Studies, London: University College London. Hamnett, C., (2004), Gentrification, Postindustrialism, and the Industrial and Occupational Restructuring in Global Cities in Gary Bridge & Sophie Watson eds., A companion to the city, Oxford: Blackwell. Holyoak, Joe, (2004), Street, Subway and Mall, Spatial Politics in The Bull Ring in Liam Kennedy ed., in Remaking Birmingham, Oxon: Routledge. James, P., (2004), Birmingham, Photography and Change in Liam Kennedy ed., in Remaking Birmingham, Oxon: Routledge. Jordan, S., (2010), The Poetics of Scale in Urban Photography in Christoph Lindner, Globalisation, Violence, and the Visual Culture of Cities, Oxon: Routledge. Julier, G. (2000) The Culture of Design, Oxford: Sage. Kates, S.M. (2002), The Protean Quality of Subcultural Consumption: An Ethnographic Account of Gay Consumers, Journal of Consumer Research, 29 (3): pp. 383-99.

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Kennedy L. (2004), Introduction: The creative destruction of Birmingham in Remaking Birmingham, Oxon: Routledge. Lee R, 2002: Nice maps, shame about the theory Thinking geographically about the economic. Progress in Human Geography 26, 333-55 2006: The ordinary economy: tangled up in values and geography, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Ns. 31, 413-32. Lury, C (1996), Consumer Culture, Cambridge: Polity Mannheim Karl, (1972), Ideology and utopia, London: Routlegde. Massey, D. (2007), Space, place and gender, Cambridge: Polity Press. Miller, K. F. (2007), Designs on the public: The private lives of New Yorks Public Spaces, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Moor, L. (2003), Branded Spaces: The scope of new marketing, in Journal of Consumer Culture, Vol 3, No. 1: 39-60. Muniz, A. and OGuinn, T. (2001), Brand Community, Journal of Consumer Research, 27 (4): pp.412-32. Smith. David and Timberlake M., (2002) Hierarchies of dominance among world cities: A network approach in Sassen, S. (ed) Global networks Linked Cities, New York: Routledge. Soja, E. W. (2000) Postmetropolis: Critical studies of cities and regions, Oxford: Blackwell. Tate Modern, (2007), Global cities teachers pack, http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/ exhibitions/globalcities/resources.shtm, PDF file, Tate

23

In what way Juan Veloza

is

urban

space

branded

through

photography?

Modern website. Accessed 19.01.11. Urban Design Compendium, (2009), Birmingham Inner Ring Road, http://www.urban designcompendium.co.uk/birminghaminnerringroad? ThumbnailID=0#largeimagesection, web site, Accessed 19.01.11. Urry, John (1990), The tourist gaze leisure and travel in contemporary societies, London: Sage. Vidler, A., (2004), Photourbanism: Planning the city from above and below in Gary Bridge and Sophie Watson, A companion to the city, Oxford: Blackwell.

24

In what way Juan Veloza

is

urban

space

branded

through

photography?