As I would assume many do, I found field research by far the most exciting part of the PhD experience. During the fieldwork stage not only was I released from the isolating process of reading, writing, and project planning, but I was able to watch theories, hunches, and answers come alive. It was the point where my relationship with the subject was most intimate and most revealing. The photographs that I took during fieldwork were a reflection of this intimacy, and were indeed the glue that held my data together. However snapping these images did not come without unexpected moments and a few lessons learnt, even in a location in which I could not have been more familiar. Here I reflect a bit on my time in Los Angeles making my way through the neighbourhood of Silver Lake with a camera in hand, and an open mind, writes Juliet Kahne

Khane, Juliet

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Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CaliforniaEditor 11/14/2014From behind the lens in a familiar place: Reflections onusing photography to explore gentrification in Los Angelesblogs.lse.ac.uk /fieldresearch/2014/11/14/using-photography-to-explore-gentrification-in-los-angeles/As I would assume many do, I found field research by far the most exciting part of the PhD experience. During thefieldwork stage not only was I released from the isolating process of reading, writing, and project planning, but I wasable to watch theories, hunches, and answers come alive. It was the point where my relationship with the subjectwas most intimate and most revealing. The photographs that I took during fieldwork were a reflection of thisintimacy, and were indeed the glue that held my data together. However snapping these images did not comewithout unexpected moments and a few lessons learnt, even in a location in which I could not have been morefamiliar. Here I reflect a bit on my time in Los Angeles making my way through the neighbourhood of Silver Lake witha camera in hand, and an open mind, writes Juliet Kahne.I am often envious when I hear exciting ‘tales from the field’ from colleagues, especially when fieldwork has beenconducted in areas foreign and exotic to the researcher. In the case of my PhD, the field research consisted of sevenmonths in Los Angeles – a well-known, well-documented, and well-developed city, and a city I already knewextremely well given I that I grew up there. The fieldwork experience was very much as I expected it to be, andoverall everything ran smoothly due to my familiarity with the location, its people, and a great deal of pre-planning.However as a participant observer who was highly dependent on the use of a camera as I made my way through theresearch area, there was indeed an element of surprise in my fieldwork, and I did have some unexpectedencounters.My PhD research investigated a historic neighbourhood in theeastern section of Los Angeles – Silver Lake – that appearedto be resisting mature gentrification despite being situated in asea of re-development projects around Downtown Los Angelesand Hollywood. Ostensibly, this was an investigation into‘social’ and ‘cultural’ urban processes, and an attempt toidentify the various physical characteristics of the gentrificationprocess due to an influx of capital. Due to the socio-culturalnature of my research topic, fieldwork was based on peopleand their experiences, but also it was highly based on thechanging physical state of the research area over time. Itherefore used photographs to record much of what I was‘seeing’.  Photographs captured the setting of Silver Lake andthe processes that were taking place within it, and a ‘photodiary’ became the foundation of ideas, thoughts, themes,knowledge, and observation shared throughout the finalthesis. Using photography I was able to capture Silver Lake the ‘place’, rather than just the gentrified Silver Lake themedia often described, and furthermore I was able to see, and show, the gentrification process in action.Noting the participatory act of ‘doing’ cultural geography, as opposed to being a passive researcher, Shurmer-Smith(2002: 4-5) states that “Doing [cultural geography] includes looking, feeling, thinking, playing, talking, writing,photographing, drawing, assembling, collecting, recording and filming as well as the more familiar reading andlistening”. I feel this very much applied to my PhD fieldwork and the photography that documented the entireexperience (see also Deljana Iossifova’s earlier post, which explains the use of photography in fieldwork). As Iwandered through Silver Lake taking photographs over the seven months I was there, I saw change as it was taking1/5Workers putting the finishing touches on a new artisan coffee shop on SilverLake’s western border. (Photograph by Juliet Kahne, 2012)place – buildings changing from one use to another, shops changing hands, and new businesses popping up. Ingentrification, there is typically an ‘aesthetic’ associatedwith this process (see Bridge, 2006), and this wassomething I tried to document since it is truly a visualchange in the landscape. One day as I crossed intoSilver Lake from neighbouring Los Feliz I noticed the finaltouches being put on a new coffee shop, clearly showingexamples of this aesthetic. The building had held avariety of businesses over the years but remained a non-descript looking building without much character. It wasreceiving a make-over with a clean font title, style, andcolour scheme that better represented the aesthetic of anup-and-coming neighbourhood – this is besides the factthat an abundance of coffee shops in a neighbourhoodoften signals gentrification in its early stages. This newestablishment, and the abundance of similar ones insurrounding locations, became useful in photographs asI could track the visual changes taking place in thelandscape that were representative of gentrification.Many years ago as an undergraduate at USC, I was warned about the difficulties and frustrations of photography inthe field. Such obvious warnings included attacks from individuals, robbery, theft, and a series of potentialaltercations especially when photographing sensitive subjects. I was also warned of the possibility that subjectscould easily be misrepresented and images potentially distorted as a result. However a more subtle reminder wasthat whilst taking photographs, a lens may provide the feeling that there is a barrier between you and the subject,where in actuality it is a very intimate and personal exchange regardless of the subject and surroundingenvironment. One does not have to be in a battlefield of chaos to be wary of what they are photographing, andproblems can arise in the most unobvious of places.I recall one afternoon as I was casually taking photographs of the Hollywood sign from inside Silver Lake’sboundaries to demonstrate how the neighbourhood sits near major attractions and services. Within a few minutes ofwhat was otherwise an innocent capturing of shots of the landmark, I found myself being followed from afar with thesounds of shouting coming towards me. As the individual grew closer, I could tell they were furious thinking that Ihad taken photos of their family and their property, and were threatening to harm me and my camera. Once Irealised what was happening and that their anger was towards me, I assured them the photos had nothing to dowith them and there was no reason for concern. However, this did not comfort them. I had to guide them with somediscussion about what I was doing and why, even though these subjects fell far out of what I believed to be anethical concern. After calming down the individual, they eventually left me alone finally convinced that they were innone of my photographs, but clearly their paranoia did not work in my favour and left me in a rather nervous state.What should have been a carefree afternoon of capturing images turned into a stressful and potentially harmfulsituation; understandably, my photographs were not strong. What I learned here was a reminder of what I had beentold as an undergrad student in photography – to always remain cautious whilst pointing a lens, as people mightreact in the most unexpected ways, and interpret your work in a negative way. Common sense: yes, but easilyforgotten in one’s comfort zone.To explain a non-threatening but still challenging case, I was desperate to capture an interview from a local activistwho was planning a new arts and music festival in the neighbourhood. Due to his busy schedule I was forced toconduct the interview in his car between meetings as his young child sat restlessly beside me crying, andrepeatedly grabbing the recorder out of my hand. Obviously not having the authority to stop the child’s behaviour, Iheld in my frustration to attempt to finish the interview in a manner that kept the interviewee comfortable. The caritself was parked alongside Sunset Boulevard, next to where a local artist was creating a graffiti-like advertisement2/5Documenting the history and physicality of Silver Lake – stairs onCove Avenue. (Photograph by Juliet Kahne, 2011)Observing change as it happens: Documenting a local graffiti artist from thepassenger seat of a car, as he created an advert for the 1st annual SilverLake Jubilee, in 2011. (Photograph by Juliet Kahne, 2011)for the festival. As the interviewee struggled to calm his child, I had the ability to take pictures of the process takingplace beside me which turned out to be usefuldocumentation about local involvement in the community.Though this experience demonstrated some of the difficultiesencountered in interviewing, it also demonstrated the‘surprise’ element of participant observation and the resultingdata – which is available everywhere, at every moment.Even though I was conducting an interview, the more usefuland interesting information was to be collected from whatwas taking place around me out on the street as a participantobserver. In addition, this photograph is now a permanentreminder of an interview situation that was less than ideal.3/5Site of Le Barcito and neighbouring mural covered Laundromat, before the insertion ofa new trendy gastropub (Photograph by Juliet Kahne, 2011)Another issue I encountered in photographing Silver Lake that I had not taken into consideration before fieldworkwas how much the area would change once arriving to the research site, and how quickly. There were occasionswhere I captured evidence in the landscape of cultural continuity and a lack of new developments and businessesthat often signal gentrification, which were to demonstrate how Silver Lake managed to limit unwanted development.However, this continuity was short lived. In the case of Le Barcito and the LaunderLand next to it on SunsetBoulevard in the heart of Silver Lake, I had captured a long standing gay bar with historic political status and itssurrounding environment covered in murals by local artists. Within the next few months, a hip restaurateurpurchased LeBarcito. He turned the corner into a gastro pub with expensive food and a complete renovation ofLeBarcito’s historic interior elements. What I initially saw to be a strong example of community activism and politicalsupport ended up making little difference in the face of change moving across the neighbourhood. Though at thetime my photograph captured something culturally significant and consistent about Silver Lake’s cultural evolution, itwas only very soon after that this significance was no longer relevant. Therefore at first sight, my observations anddocumentation was supporting my hypothesis, only to then change very shortly after.Despite any difficulties in the field, I kept Shurmer-Smith’s (2002) interactive and participatory approach in mind as Iworked my way through Silver Lake’s boundaries, not only to compliment and support an ethnographic approach inthe field but to gather data in a way that could generate evidence that might have otherwise been overlooked. AsEysenck (1976: 9) said, “sometimes we simply have to keep our eyes open and look carefully at individual cases—not in the hope of proving anything, but rather in the hope of learning something!” This is a similar idea to Jacobs’(1961) ‘eyes on the street’, where we can see sudden change through our ‘own eyes’ with participation andobservation, noting what is taking place in a neighbourhood and how this change manifests in the landscape and insocial relationships in the neighbourhood. In the case of this particular research and field work during my PhD, thecamera functioned as my eyes, and often captured the unexpected – even in the most familiar of places.ReferencesBridge, G. (2006) It’s not just a question of taste: gentrification, the neighbourhood, and cultural capital. Environmentand Planning A 38: 1965-1978Eysenck, H.J. (1976) Introduction. in: H.J. Eysenck (ed.) Case studies in behaviour therapy. London: RoutledgeJacobs, J. (1961) The Death and Life of Great American Cities  (1992 edition). New York: Random House.4/5Shurmer-Smith, P. (ed.) (2002) Doing Cultural Geography. London: Sage.About the authorJuliet Kahne is a native Californian, who currently lives in London. She graduated from the University of SouthernCalifornia (USC) with a BA in Geography, and graduated from King’s College London with an MSc in Cities Cultureand Social Change, and a PhD in Geography (Arts). Her main research interests include urbanism, visual culture,historic preservation/cultural heritage, and the arts – mainly in how these areas combined influence (positively andnegatively) development and culture in the city. She feels a connection can and should be made between urbandevelopment and the preservation of arts and culture in order to maintain a ‘sense of place’ within a givenlandscape.For citation: Kahne, J. (2014) From behind the lens in a familiar place: Reflections on using photography to exploregentrification in Los Angeles. Field Research Method Lab at LSE (14 November 2014) Blogentry. URL: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/fieldresearch/2014/11/14/using-photography-to-explore-gentrification-in-los-angeles5/5

From behind the lens in a familiar place: Reflections on using photography to explore gentrification in Los Angeles

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