Photographic exposure: A critique of the shopping centre

The research photographs were taken in a variety of shopping centres in Britain, and these spaces were explored through photography and in the photograph. The practice explores and documents retail and leisure landscapes in the urban environment, and the documentary tradition of evidence as the critique analyses this culture of capitalism in the twenty first century. The project focused on consumerism across various shopping centres in different social geographical locations, and different genres of photography have been used as the method for producing this critique of the shopping centre. The photographs have been disseminated across various websites and gallery exhibitions, and these spaces have different audiences affecting the reading of the critique manifest. ‘Plan of the Present Work, The Production of Space’ by Henri Lefebvre deconstructs space and is used to breaks down the spaces of the photograph, and ‘Time Exposure and Snapshot: The Photograph as Paradox’ by Thierry de Duve is discussed. Representational spaces related to the time exposure, while representations of space relate to the snapshot. Landscape as real space and composition as imagined space are identified in relation to the different temporal exposures. Both are critical in evidencing consumerism today. The use of different exposure times, including time exposure and snapshot, manifest depressive and euphoric readings of the image respectively, thus affecting how the critique is evidenced and functions. Methods construct the critique, and an analysis of the photograph reveals these practice methods. Contextual photographers include Thomas Struth and Garry Winogrand, respectively time exposure and snapshot practitioners in the documentary tradition. A close reading of the research photographs in the thesis draws out the different critiques of the shopping centre, like the patterns of consumption and arrest of somnambulism. The exposure of the research photographs critiques the stark reality of consumerism within the highly image-produced spaces of the shopping centre. Leisure and social spaces are increasingly a part of the retail space in consumer capitalism, and this is critiqued through evidence from the research practice.