Photographing Strangers, Part 3

Rounding out the last couple of posts about photographing strangers, I want to take you on a little excursion through some photo projects that have pushed the boundaries of voyeurism and surveillance in documentary photography over the past few decades.

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In 2007, Michael Wolf brought a large-format camera with an exceptional ability to capture fine details to high-rise parking garages in Chicago. He photographed the glass-clad neighborhood buildings for a series aptly named "Transparent City". I came across a fun description of the project: “Edward Hopper meets Blade Runner.” The images, all taken around twilight, are truly gorgeous, weaving in and out of wider shots and uncomfortably close crops of people inside their homes and offices. One tongue-in-cheek image shows an office worker — who has somehow spotted the photographer from across the chasm of the elevated city — giving Wolf the middle finger. This gesture hints at the many layers of the series, with humor and self-awareness balancing out exuberant and unapologetic voyeurism.

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A basic condition of voyeurism is distance, a longing for an object outside of one’s reach. Merry Alpern's project, “Dirty Windows,” is probably the most voyeuristic on this list, incorporating both distance/the invisible observer and sex in its themes. From 1993 to 94, Merry discovered that across her friend’s Wall Street apartment is a tiny but clearly visible bathroom window of an illegal brothel. The high-contrast, black and white, grainy images are of both the women and the johns, getting undressed, engaging in sex, exchanging money. The series is raw and visceral, slightly distressing and captivating. This is one of the infrequent instances in the history of photography where the Peeping Tom is, indeed, a woman.

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Probably one of the most fascinating and complex series is "Dear Stranger" by Shizuka Yokomizo. Taken between 1998 and 2000, these images balance the thrill of voyeurism and the anonymity of surveillance while managing to avoid transgressing ethical boundaries. Yokomizu sent anonymous letters to people living in ground-floor apartments in four cities around the world, requesting them to pose for a portrait in front of their lit window at a specific time. The photographer would take the portrait, unseen, both parties remaining strangers. She then mailed a print to the subject, requesting a permission for it to be exhibited. The resulting images are powerful and eerie, with the subject looking back at the voyeur — both the invisible photographer and the eventual viewer — with a sense of control.

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Another photographer looking into windows but with no qualms as to the ethics involved is Arne Svenson, who spent a year (2015) pointing a telephoto lens into his neighbors' apartment, unseen. The images from the series, "Neighbors", are crops of the large windows, showing intimate glimpses of family life. These disquieting and charged graphic scenes somehow remind me of Balthus paintings and are reluctantly seductive. But even with my fairly strong tolerance of all things voyeuristic, the series left me uneasy, maybe for the first time questioning the fair limits of privacy. Which, I guess, is not a bad thing after all. When the images were published and exhibited, the family sued, and lost. The judge sided with the photographer, stating that there is no real expectation of privacy in a room with large glass windows that can be seen from a building across the street.

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Which one is your favorite?

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Photographing Strangers, part 1 - Introvert's guide to street photography.

Photographing Strangers, part 2 - The legal and the ethical guide.

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