Stills, from My Life
Junior Photography Seminar Project, 2012
Junior Photography Seminar Project, 2012
This project is an experiment with voyeurism. I have run surveillance over My Life and, as a result, the people within My Life. Each of these photographs is from a moment in My Life; a “Still” from My Life. Over the course of half a year, I have taken videos of myself in various situations with my cell phone. Every time, whether by myself or around large groups of people, the phone is always hidden wherever I can conveniently place it and left there for however long I feel like it, on record. I never put it in the same spot twice.
I have set up surveillance while at my apartment, at work, at my parent’s house, with my friends, with my family, by myself, reading, in the car, on the toilet, etc. I include as many situations as I can, from the completely mundane to the oddly interesting and exciting; every moment is a contributing factor to the overall narrative reality that is My Life.
No one that appears within these stills is aware of this surveillance. Those that are aware that I am doing this are never fully aware of exactly when I am doing it. This creates a sort of reverse Truman Show; I am pointing a camera at My Life and at the people within My Life to see what happens, without anyone else’s knowledge of it.
We are all constantly under surveillance. Through cameras, through the eyes of other people, other living things, through the window, on the Internet, on the phone, at home, at work; we are never quite “alone.” Through this project, I am taking it upon myself to not only accept but also embrace this fact; I am literally surveilling myself before and/or while anyone or anything else can, and presenting it in this form for everyone to see. I am claiming ownership over these various moments within My Life before any other wandering eye surveilling me is able to do so at that moment.
I am presenting this collection of two hundred stills in the hopes that it will overwhelm the viewer with feelings of being watched and of watching. I wish to force them to be my voyeur, my stalker. I want them to take notice of these moments in life where they are both surveilling and being surveilled, moments in which they do not have control over who they see, what they see, or who sees them.
I have set up surveillance while at my apartment, at work, at my parent’s house, with my friends, with my family, by myself, reading, in the car, on the toilet, etc. I include as many situations as I can, from the completely mundane to the oddly interesting and exciting; every moment is a contributing factor to the overall narrative reality that is My Life.
No one that appears within these stills is aware of this surveillance. Those that are aware that I am doing this are never fully aware of exactly when I am doing it. This creates a sort of reverse Truman Show; I am pointing a camera at My Life and at the people within My Life to see what happens, without anyone else’s knowledge of it.
We are all constantly under surveillance. Through cameras, through the eyes of other people, other living things, through the window, on the Internet, on the phone, at home, at work; we are never quite “alone.” Through this project, I am taking it upon myself to not only accept but also embrace this fact; I am literally surveilling myself before and/or while anyone or anything else can, and presenting it in this form for everyone to see. I am claiming ownership over these various moments within My Life before any other wandering eye surveilling me is able to do so at that moment.
I am presenting this collection of two hundred stills in the hopes that it will overwhelm the viewer with feelings of being watched and of watching. I wish to force them to be my voyeur, my stalker. I want them to take notice of these moments in life where they are both surveilling and being surveilled, moments in which they do not have control over who they see, what they see, or who sees them.
