VISUALISING BLACK SENSES OF PLACE

Keywords: Black Geographies, London, Photography, Practice-related,
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 43

Abstract

This proposed paper draws heavily upon my Geography (practice-related) PhD project Everyday Things: Visualising Black Millennial experiences on the White City Estate. This project is focused on visualising the experiences of a group of Black millennials living on the White City Estate in West London. It combines two main methodologies. The first is an archival focused work, aimed at recovering the estate’s former imperial and colonial site, Great White City Exhibition grounds (1908) but also more recent histories of the estate. The second is a form of co-produced photographic research undertaken with Black millennials (aged 23 to 33) currently living on the White City estate.

Taking up collaborative photographic activities with a kingship group of peers living on the White City Estate in West London has facilitated distinct insights into Black senses of place. Engaging visually and textually with varying notions of home, belonging and what it means to have authority of one’s block, the practice-related tenets of this work are inspired by visual practitioners such as Roy DeCarava and Ingrid Pollard. By archivally recovering the former histories and geographies of this West London council estate, this project facilitates a site-specific reframing of this locale. Drawing on photo-elicitation interviews held with the kingship group of peers living on the White City Estate and Black Geographies inspired analyses, this proposed paper hopes to facilitate a unique visual essay and talk orientated towards facilitating insights into the varied notions of a Black sense of place.