Bruce Dick and James Love From Rita

Abstract

In the era of globalization, the urban landscape has been labelled as ‘placeless’ and tending toward uniformity. At the same time, filmmakers and photographers have scrutinized public spaces, highlighting the ephemeral traffic of the postmodern city and its tendency to create non-places, zones of constant passage and displaced referentiality. This research asks how located photography of the urban landscape can transform these notions of non-place.

Bruce Dick and James Love From Rita is a series of C-type colour prints. The photographs were taken over a five month period in the Philippines, Manila and the surrounding provinces. The title was inspired by the flaunted names of Filipino taxis and jeepneys. The photographs are of people absorbed in their various activities liminal places in streets, towns and shops. The series examines the fabric of urban interstices. The result is a surprising conjunction of human intimacy and alienation demonstrating that the local and intimate constitute part of the uniformity of global cities.

The work’s value is attested to by the sponsorship of the following organisations: the Philippines-Australia Studies Network, Latrobe University, Melbourne and Green Papaya Art Projects in cooperation with the Rizal Library, Ateneo de Manila University and the Australian Embassy.