Crosslocations explores the connections and disconnections between places in the Mediterranean region. Rather than look at each place on its own terms, Crosslocations wants to understand how its connections with, and separations from, other places, affect the place - how different worlds can overlap in the same space and what that means in terms of being somewhere. It is a bit like thinking of places as a crisscrossing of many different paths, built by different people and organisations, which carry a diversity of travellers and things along their routes. The whole Mediterranean region has had a reputation for being a crossroads for centuries, so it was a good place for this work, but it is possible to think of any place in that way.
Each photograph in this book tells its own story about the places where they were taken, all of which are somewhere around the Mediterranean. They capture some glimpses of the crosscurrents of life and the way buildings, landscapes, people, animals, things, and activities co-exist somewhere.
Some texts are conversations between the anthropologist and the photographer. These conversations are informal, non-academic discussions that try to capture something of the moment of taking the pictures and how each of them understood what was going on. Other texts are more formal, written by the anthropologist to say something of what they understood of the places in which they worked and the role that the photography played there.
Sarah Green is the leader of the Crosslocations project and is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Helsinki. Lena Malm has been working as a professional photographer since finishing her studies at ICP (International Center of Photography) in New York in 1993.
Introduction: Imaging Crosslocations, Sarah Green
Imaginations of urban public space in Beirut, Samuli Lähteenaho
A cross-located border: the Spanish enclave of Melilla, Laia Soto Bermant
Animal prints and traces, Sarah Green
Contemporary threads of a historical trade: the Istanbul Grand Bazaar and its iconic carpet trade, Patricia Scalco
Meteora as seen from Kalambaka, Central Greece, Phaedra Douzina-Bakalaki
Egypt’s project dreams: unfulfilled promises in a re-located nation, Carl Rommel
Afterword, Lena Malm.
