The Viewer As Voyeur
June 15, 2010 12:14 PM   Subscribe

Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera is an exhibition at the Tate Modern in London which examines voyeurism through the medium of photography. In addition to works from professionals such as Brassaï, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Lee Miller, Shizuka Yokomizo, Guy Bourdin, Nan Goldin and Robert Mapplethorpe, it includes amateur and CCTV "stolen" images taken both with and without the knowledge of their subjects -- all intended to "explore the uneasy relationship between making and viewing images that deliberately cross lines of privacy and propriety."

There are 250 photographs in the exhibition, a representative sample from the last 150 years. The exhibition is currently on display at the Tate Modern in London, (until October 3rd,) and will then travel to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, opening October 30th.

From the Museum’s exhibition guide:
"The exhibition is divided into five thematic sections: The Unseen Photographer, Celebrity and the Public Gaze, Voyeurism and Desire, Witnessing Violence, and Surveillance. In each case, the nature and character of invasive looking is evident not only in the images themselves, but also in the ways in which the viewer is implicated in acts of voyeurism."
* Review by the British Journal of Photography.
* The Daily Beast: Article / Gallery (Mild Nudity, NSFW)
* Review from the Telegraph / Gallery
* The Guardian: Gallery. Accompanying article / review:
One of the most difficult rooms contains journalistic images of death and violence and some people will undoubtedly whistle through the room, upset by awful images of suicide, execution and lynching. It includes images such as Tom Howard's electrocution of Ruth Snyder, from 1928, and Eddie Adams' haunting photograph of a Viet Cong officer being executed in 1968.
posted by zarq (7 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
i wonder all this high tech gadgetry inspired eavesdropping becomes addictive?
posted by infini at 12:31 PM on June 15, 2010


Really disturbing stuff. It clearly fulfills the artistic mission of creating discomfort, unease, and thought.
posted by bearwife at 12:38 PM on June 15, 2010


Anti-surveillance device.
posted by homunculus at 1:05 PM on June 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


This is a great exhibit. Thanks!
posted by shakespeherian at 1:22 PM on June 15, 2010


Love the Laurie Long work.
posted by xod at 1:34 PM on June 15, 2010 [1 favorite]


Hey, anyone see that Miley photo yet!
posted by eas98 at 1:40 PM on June 15, 2010


Doesn't there have to be an explicitly sexual arousal before spying can be described as voyeurism?
posted by bukvich at 3:49 PM on June 15, 2010


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