Surveillance

Shizuka Yokomizo 
Stranger No. 1 1998
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art © The artist

Shizuka Yokomizo 
Stranger No. 2 1999
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art © The artist

Yokomizo makes pictures of people looking out of their windows into the night. The subjects receive a letter from the photographer inviting them to appear at the window at a particular time.  The people who do not accept the invitation can close their curtains or blinds. Through this idea Yokoimzo investigates the idea of voyeuristic photographs with the subjects consent or permission.

These pictures create fear as there is a thought of who is watching me? The darkness of the surrounding areas, like night, creates a feeling of a stalker.

Jonathan OlleyBritish Army firing range, Magilligan Point, Lough Foyle, Co. Londonderry 1998
© Jonathan Olley

Jonathan OlleyGolf Five Zero watchtower (known to the British Army as 'Borucki Sanger')
Crossmaglen Security Force Base, South Armagh 1999
© Jonathan Olley

Jonathan Olley
Grosvenor Road RUC Police Station, Grosvenor Road, Central Belfast 1998
© Jonathan Olle

From the twenty-first century cameras have been put on street corners, in shops and on public buildings, silently recording our every move.  While web based tools such as Google Earth make sure that there is no escape.

More recently, photographers have taken surveillance technology as their subject, turning the camera back on itself. Jonathan Olley has photographed the invasive watchtowers built by the British Army in Northern Ireland.

These images create fear in a different way to those above, as these focus on the camera and thoughts of what it has witnessed comes to mind.  It is interesting to look back at surveillance capturing the camera and its settings, making you think about the type of people that would be in that area and their actions.  This could create a whole new view for the photo shoot.