Things pictures don’t tell us: In search of Baltimore

Elvin Wyly

City, 2010, vol. 14, issue 5, 497-528

Abstract: With a brilliance that captures 'places photographed in all their fucked‐up grandeur,’ (Alvarez, 2009, p. 414), the HBO series The Wire has seared unforgettable images of Baltimore and American urbanism into the imaginations of a vast, transnational audience. But we have known, ever since Benjamin and Sontag, that cinematography and photography can reinforce stereotypes, appropriate identities, and violate people and places through the assertion of epistemological power. Today, critical visual theory is going mainstream. Almost no‐one views photographs anymore as unproblematic reflections of reality, and popular culture has become a fragmented and politicized media landscape of niche audiences that have learned the lessons of postpositivist cynical sophistication all too well. In this hostile climate, can we redeem the simple, innocent snapshot? I think we should try. Armin Lobek’s (1956) Things Maps Don’t Tell Us provides the inspiration for a simple, constructive, and critical approach that acknowledges the limits of visual representation while avoiding the costs of innovative yet negative theories defined by disillusionment.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2010.512436

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