Urban Earth: (re)Presenting our Habitat is a film project aimed at displaying cities as they are. The films portray the realities of urban life by creating films from photos taken every 8 steps on walks through cities.
Daniel Raven-Ellison of The Geography Collective founded the Urban Earth project to show people an alternative view of life in cities. The urban forms most often portrayed in the media are the glorified extremes of urbanity, cluttered with the bias of commercial or political agendas. Urban Earth aims to eliminate these distortions and show cities as they truly are for those who live there.
“Urban Earth is not about following the tourist trail or tracking down the most extreme places… it is about finding normality.”
To ensure an unbiased depiction of the city, Urban Earth takes footage at regularized intervals. “ A photograph is taken every 8 steps (roughly) across each city and then edited together to make films which reveal an alternative way of experiencing cities. Each photo is always taken looking directly forward without bias, presenting an urban view which is emotionally challenging for the photographer whose gaze is drawn towards specific people, objects and places.”
Urban Earth plans routes that pass through the otherwise overlooked sections of cities, often in underprivileged communities with high population densities. “For example, where the poorest 20% of the population might occupy 14% of urban space, roughly 14% of the walk travels through these most deprived areas. The length of the walk is also proportionate to the size of the city.”
The films are then edited and produced to show a realistic representation of these Urban Earth walks. The Geography Collective has filmed and produced several short pieces that portray life in various urban settings such as London, Mexico City, and Mumbai.
Urban Earth has since expanded to offer "urban story walks" through cities like London, and to connect people using these methods.
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