Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera Since 1870

Five Themes of Forbidden Looking

The Unseen Photographer

Photography has been central to voyeuristic looking since 1871, the year in which the gelatin dry plate was invented and cameras became small enough to be secreted in books, clothing, shoes, pistols, or canes. Although most "detective cameras" were advertised as harmless amusements for amateurs, the public found them troubling from the start, raising concerns about privacy that remain valid to this day. This section of the exhibition traces the use of the hidden camera in public spaces, from the turn-of-the-century amateur picture makers Paul Martin and Horace Engle, to modernist photographers Walker Evans and Weegee and contemporary artists such as Philip-Lorca diCorcia, whose series Heads, featured here, famously inspired a privacy lawsuit in 2006.

Voyeurism and Desire

Among the first applications of photography was the production of erotic pictures, originally in the form of daguerreotypes and stereo views. Ranging from Edgar Degas's studies of nude bathers to Andy Warhol's Blow Job and provocative pictures by Robert Mapplethorpe, Nan Goldin, and Helmut Newton, this section traces the gray area between voyeuristic sexuality and pornography since the 19th century. tktkt

Celebrity and the Public Gaze

Photographs of public figures date back to the 19th century, but the roots of today's cult of celebrity lie in the invasive techniques of the Italian paparazzi, whose pictures were consumed widely via the popular press in Europe and the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. The most persistent was perhaps Tazio Secchiaroli, who pursued stars on his Vespa, enraging some of his subjects to the point of violence. Other figures of note represented in this section include Andy Warhol, Richard Avedon, Doris Banbury, and Ron Galella, the American paparazzo who was infamously punched by Marlon Brando and sued by Jackie Onassis.

Witnessing Violence

In 1928 photojournalist Tom Howard made a shocking image of Ruth Snyder's electrocution using a hidden camera strapped to his ankle. It was a watershed moment in voyeuristic reportage, fueled largely by the insatiable public appetite for tabloid journalism. Significantly, the 20th and 21st centuries have seen many of their signal catastrophes captured on film, from the Hindenburg disaster and John F. Kennedy's assassination to the 9/11 tragedy. tktkt

Surveillance

From shots used to identify suffragettes and anarchists to prisoner Rudolf Cisar's clandestine views of Dachau, photography has been crucial to a wide variety of surveillance projects, both political and private. This section juxtaposes FBI photographs and military reconnaissance shots with work by contemporary artists who have critiqued or appropriated the technologies of surveillance, including Jordan Crandall, Bruce Nauman, Barbara Probst, and Thomas Ruff.

SFMOMA, in association with Yale University Press, will publish a major catalogue in conjunction with the exhibition. Phillips edits the volume and introduces the five primary themes of the exhibition, providing rich historical context for the more contemporary work; Simon Baker looks at two 20th-century practitioners with very different approaches to urban photography — Bill Brandt and Ilya Ehrenburg — finding contemporary counterparts in Nan Goldin and Philip-Lorca diCorcia; Philip Brookman considers the genre of street photography as both art and surveillance; Carol Squiers examines the subject of paparazzi pictures; Marta Gili looks at surveillance's impact on contemporary art; and Richard B. Woodward addresses a startling recent trend: the self-documentation of sex, crimes, and other private acts. Image from Amazon

Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera Since 1870 by Sandra S. Phillips, Simon Baker, Richard B. Woodward.

Captions:

1. Harry Callahan, Atlanta,1984; dye transfer print; 9 7/16 x 14 5/16 in. (23.97 x 36.35 cm); Collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © The Estate of Harry Callahan, courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York

Source: http://www.sfmoma.org/press/releases/exhibitions/830#ixzz1EFtDJ06Y
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

2. Nan Goldin, Nan and Brian in bed, New York City, 1983; detail from The Ballad of Sexual Dependency; 1979-1996; nine-carousel projection with approximately 700 slides, soundtrack, and titles; dimensions variable; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; © Nan Goldin; image: courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery

3. Alison Jackson, The Queen plays with her Corgies from the series Confidential, 2007; chromogenic print; 16 x 12 in. (40.64 x 30.48 cm); Courtesy the artist and M + B Gallery; © Alison Jackson, courtesy M+B Gallery

4. Enrique Metinides, Secuencia rescate de un suicide en la cúpula el toreo (Suicide rescue from the top of the Toreo Stadium) (detail), 1971; six gelatin silver prints; dimensions variable; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Enrique Metinides

5. . Laurie Long, Compact, from The Dating Surveillance Project, 1998; gelatin silver print; 18 3/4 x 23 in. (47.6 x 58.4 cm); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Laurie Long

6. Shizuka Yokomizo, Stranger No. 2, 1999, chromogenic print; 31 1/4 x 31 1/4 in. (79.4 x 79.4 cm); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Shizuka Yokomizo

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Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera Since 1870

Five Themes of Forbidden Looking

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