I wish I was in the UK right now because I’d be on my way to the Tate Modern in London. Given the current state of surveillance and with the rights of photographers in question this could be one of the most relevant exhibitions in recent history.
See some of the photos.
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Back HomeExposed offers a fascinating look at pictures made on the sly, without the explicit permission of the people depicted. With photographs from the late nineteenth century to present day, the pictures present a shocking, illuminating and witty perspective on iconic and taboo subjects.
Beginning with the idea of the ‘unseen photographer’, Exposed presents 250 works by celebrated artists and photographers including Brassaï’s erotic Secret Paris of the 1930s images; Weegee’s iconic photograph of Marilyn Monroe; and Nick Ut’s reportage image of children escaping napalm attacks in the Vietnam War. Sex and celebrity is an important part of the exhibition, presenting photographs of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, Paris Hilton on her way to prison and the assassination of JFK. Other renowned photographers represented in the show include Guy Bourdin, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Philip Lorca DiCorcia, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Nan Goldin, Lee Miller, Helmut Newton and Man Ray.
The UK is now the most surveyed country in the world. We have an obsession with voyeurism, privacy laws, freedom of media, and surveillance – images captured and relayed on camera phones, YouTube or reality TV.
Much of Exposed focuses on surveillance, including works by both amateur and press photographers, and images produced using automatic technology such as CCTV. The issues raised are particularly relevant in the current climate, with topical debates raging around the rights and desires of individuals, terrorism and the increasing availability and use of surveillance. Exposed confronts these issues and their implications head-on.
2 Comments at "Exposed at the Tate"
Actually I visited it just yesterday.
TO be honest I was a little disapointed. Maybe I was just tired (I’d been up very early that day), but the kind of topic it is I was expecting something that would be more gut-grabbing. Instead it all felt a little academic and distant.
I suppose it felt a lot more like secret candids than true voyeurism to my mind, and issues like CCTV, Paparazzi were a bit “skirted around”.
A number of the pieces are staged, not voyeuristic or candid.
As an example, they had the classic Marilyin Monroe skirt on the air vent shot. Now, as an instance of a certain type of voyeurism, I understand it and why it has a place in this exhibition. But are you telling me there aren’t many other Monroe shots that have a far more compelling story to tell about the whole voyerism, privacy, personality issue?
A few pieces that did stick in my mind: some of the photos about the dying and dead, the infra-red photos from the japanese park.
Still worth seeing, because some of this work is not in the normal run of the mill exhibition.
Thanks for that Simon. That is a bit disappointing I had high hopes for it even though I wasn’t going to get to see it.
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