Critical explorations of the visual representations of goutte dor contrasted with qualitative walking methodologies.

Begin with history of goutte dor look at the imagined urban geography of the space, and then go onto contrast with my own methodologies- walking, walking with a friend, and then begin to talk about the gentrification in the area, and explore how this is creating a new image for goutte dor and how this is relates to social mixity in the area. I explored the area using a diverse range of methodologies, with the initial starting point being a derive, but also using further techniques to help gain a deeper understanding of the area. This will be compared to the visual representations of Goutte dor, a multicultural area, known for its vast amount of goods selling foreign products and its bustling informal economy and drugs trade. I will explore whether they represent the area truthfully, or presented a romanticized image, in comparison to my own experience, and the ethics of both my own research and that of the production of visual culture. This report is going to explore the area of Goutte dor through my own ethnographic experience when visiting the area and contrast it with two popular visual representations of the district. When exploring the area, I used a diverse range of methodologies to try and gather Goutte dor an area that has been reported as being hostile to outsiders and with even fellow Parisians seeing the area as a space they are not welcomed in ( Vuddlamy) make it a academically very interesting sight to explore due to the area has traditionally been seen as hostile, whilst the growing development and gentrification in the area is trying to reshape this. Furthermore it challenges popular representations of a city often captured from a tourist perspective The Goutte dor is an ethnic minority district located in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, comprised of largely people from African and Arabic descendants. The area is known as little Africa and has been described as a continent within a city (Dyer 2002) with Africans first coming to France as poets, entertainers and explorers (ibid). the observer said that when visiting the area tact is called for by visitors to the Goutte dor. Curious swaves are not always welcome and the atmosphere in a caf can change instantly. This knowledge instilled apprehension for my visit to the area, but it also made me begin to think about how we begin to conjure up a certain image of an area and the discursive power that imagined geographies can have. Imagined geographies can be described as the representation of other places- of peoples and landscapes, cultures and natures- that articulate the desires, fantasies and fears of their authors and the grids of power between them and their Others. Moreover Edward Sojas work on the urban imaginary which can be understood as, our

mental or cognitive mappings of urban reality and the interpretative grids through which we think about, experience, evaluate, and decide to act in the places, spaces, and communities in which we live (Soja 324). One way in which the urban imaginaries result is forom its representation of urabn spaces in different media such as in film or literature (Messiner 2011: 5)

One way to examine the way in which way the area is represented is through visual culture. Geography has been described as visual discipline When in Paris walking round as an outsider with a camera, I wanted to try and capture the essence of the area, each road I was met with new cultures, bright colours and building work, I wanted to try and represent the area, I wanted to be able to take a single picture to show my family where I had been just as through

photographs, we see, we remember, we imagine: we picture place (Schwartz and Ryan 2003: 1). This made me think about what I was trying to capture with my photography and it represents the area. Figure 1 is one example of images I took in my time showing some young boys playing outside an store specializing in the Cameroonian products. This to me presents the area as one that represents the typical vision of Goutte dor as an African diaspora. However even when capturing his image I thought of Gillian Rose stating that images do not exist in a vacuum (Rose 2011:52) and that with each capture I was trying to frame Goutte dor through the perpective of 1/60th second, and that with each image we must be critical of what we are presented. The store presents foreign fruits and the children playing appear to be of African and Arabic descent and this image shows a stark contrast from the popular image, where the top twenty results are solely of the Eifell tower, Goutte dor is an area that has been forgotten from the popular tourist perspective, it is nothing more than a through point to Mont Matre and the Sacre Couer for many tourists.

http://old.post-gazette.com/travel/20021027paris1027trp2.asp aside from my own attempts to represent Goutte dor there have been representations by the media to challenge the

Richard Parr: Site of construction.. funded/authorized by Islamic institute soja work on perspective.

One representation of Goutte dor that I discovered after my trip to the area was a advert for Nike that tells the story of the amateur basketball team in the area. The advert was produced in collaboration with Stephen Asphool, who runs the Pigalle boutique, and the dutch film maker . Asphool describes Pigalle as an ever-changing neighbourhood where upscale and griiteness blend together as velvet and concrete. This interesting metaphor serves to demonstrate the apparent social mixity that we see in advert. However, this contradicts to my own experiences in the area, as where the bakers wife had described the area as having only goodies (the new affluent middle classes) and baddies (the underclass comprised of drug dealers etc.). The advert presents a diverse range of cultures and backgrounds and the images below show some of the people who the character in the video plays for. It shows a young man called Bakaria, who is carrying skateboard with the Jamaican flag, a man called Mohammed, and a third individual who seems to be either French or of Arabic descent. This further illustrates the social mixity in the area, but It still challenges what our friend Eva told us about the area, and the lack of mixity. Maybe her own positinality as a middle class student did not allow her access to this sub culture and even if not all Parisians feel welcome, there is certainly a close knit community here.

One of the most interesting things I found about this video is its use of space and how it differed so greatly from my experiences. The opening image shows our protagonist sat on a park bench, with park as site for them to play basketball and hang out for youths. However when we visited, the space was populated by old men, who as discussed were hostile and were also warned the park was not safe. This muddled image makes it very hard to try and really gain a true perspective on the area, with this ongoing almost dichotomous representation of the area, with it either being good or bad. Furthermore, the video challenged how I perceived the locals feelings of identity. From the vast number of phone shops advertising cheap calls back to the migrants former homes and stores selling a variety of foreign goods I presumed that this diaspora saw themselves as separate from the rest of Paris as the other Parisians felt from them. however, the narrator states that he not plays for friends and family, but for his country as well. Whilst this only the perspective of one character, who is most likely to have assisted with scripting, it certainly made me question what I had learnt and felt when I was in the area.

This raises issues how my own positionality effects my research, as it has been said all researchers are positioned (Dauterman) and I certainly feel that my own experiences in Goutte dor as well as my own background shape my perceptions and critique of other representations of Goutte dor. Another representation of Goutte dor that I found was Martin Parrs week long photo documentary of his time in the area. His agenda was to try and reveal the true Goutte dor, beyond the common depiction that is riddled with drugs, crime and immigrants. Martin worked in residency in the lInstitut des Cultures dIslam, this is very

interesting site of construction. In terms of positionality, he is neither French nor Muslim and is not a resident of the area. Whilst this can serve to create a fresh perspective it is strange to get the other (Parr) to represent the self (citizens of Goutte dor), especially when visual

representations have been described as such a sensitive issue (Calia

). Although, maybe this external perspective is what is needed to break through the mainstream polarized image of Goutte dor and challenge the collective urban imaginary. Parrs work was drawn to the centre of French politics debate about the banning of and whilst his portrayal has been described as non sensational the exhibition has a great impact. The most pertinent

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8330.00317/abstract http://johnedwinmason.typepad.com/john_edwin_mason_ photogra/representing-the-other/ http://courses.ischool.berkeley.edu/i103/s10/SLIDES/HOFIGNPhotog3-9.pdf http://www.upf.edu/forma/_pdf/vol04/forma_vol04_07callia.pdf

reality