Città e immagine. Questione d'abitudine

In this essay we will propose a reflection, necessarily introductory and programmatic in character, on the relationship between city and image, with special consideration for the impact of digital images (and, in particular, stock images) on the ways people inhabit and orient themselves in the city. First of all, we will show the importance of the city for the development of the main visual practices and habits in Western modernity. Then, we will discuss the impact of digital images on the visual habits related to the use of urban spaces and the practices of representation of the city; in this respect, we will sketch out a tensive relation between the current emphasis on the experiential immersivity enabled by the digital media and the ‘still’ representational character of digital images. Third, we will focus on the case of stock images and their way of interacting with urban spaces and depicting the city on dedicated repositories.