The Navigators

Flâneur is a french word which Charles Baudelaire used to describe a person who walks around the city in order to experience it. a Flaneur was known to take in all parts of the world equally, spending equal time viewing the world. Flaneurs were able to spend large portions of time due to the invention of the street lamp. This invention also opened up a new world, as normally one would go to sleep after the sun set. The street lamp increased night life, creating something new for the flanuer to experience.




While thinking about the flaneur I realized that what is most interesting about the flaneur is not the city they exhibit, but the flaneur themselves. It seems that Poe too found the flaneur themselves to be interesting. Who are the flaneurs what does their life consist of. I find myself asking this question about a lot of people i see on the street. wondering, "what do they do at night?" or "what does their apartment look like?".











This video is from the movie "Following" by Christopher Nolan. The film tells the story of an unemployed, aspiring writer. The writer out of boredom begins "shadowing" other people. Edgar Allen Poe does this in his story "Man in the Crowd" Poe follows a flaneur. Perhaps "Following" is a re-telling of Poe's "Man in the Crowd" but with a twist.




In thinking about the flaneur and reading Poe's "Man in the Crowd" I also found myself imagining it visually as Sophie Calle's "Suite Venitienne/Please Follow Me". In this series Calle trails a man she met a party from Paris to Venice, photographing along the way."

Poe's "Man in the Crowd", Nolan's "Following", and Calle's "Suite Venitienne/Please Follow Me" all play into our interest in others in a similar way. Not surprisingly Calle and Nolan's work is very similar visually.

Left: An image from Calle's "Suite Venitienne" Right: A still from Nolan's "Following"

Perhaps it is our natural inclination to be voyeurs of sorts. Maybe voyeurs are nothing more than flaneurs who find interest in humanity rather than the city. Merry Alpern is a voyeur in her "Dirty Windows" series.

Aren't we all voyeurs though? many street photographers can easily fall into the category of voyeur. Garry Winogrand openly admits to going after attractive women in his photographs.

The Flaneur is nothing more than a voyeur whose interest is one of the city not of the people.