Comparing and Contrasting Notions of Surveillance and Voyeurism

Merry Alpern - Dirty Windows.

I have chosen to contrast and compare these two images. One is from a very voyeuristic approach whereas the other is more of a surveillance one. 

The first one I want to talk about is Merry Alpern's Dirty Windows. The image shows a woman, not really doing very much but we assume because the artist has called the piece ‘Dirty Windows’ that it must be somewhat uncouth. It has been taken in black and white to add to the whole dark atmospheric mood of the image and the image is cleverly cropped without intention to. The image was created in 1994 and I believe was taken using a telephoto lens. Viewers looking at this voyeuristic shot feel somewhat uneasy but still want to know more about it. Merry Alpern took surveillance to the next level by spying on a bathroom window of a sex club near Wall Street. I really think that the work is aesthetically pleasing even if the subject matter is a bit hard to handle, I think that Merry Alpern just wanted to shock viewers with her latest work with this voyeuristic angle, nothing wrong with that and as Michel Foucault said ‘He who is subjected to a field of visibility and who knows it, assures responsibility for the constraints of power, he makes them pay spontaneously upon himself.’ Therefore stating that if you don’t want to be watched don’t make it easy for them.

Tom Wood - Looking For Love

The next one is Tom Wood who has taken a more surveillance approach to his work. Instead of taking Merry Alpern's technique and snapping something shocking he has gone for a more open every day look. He has called his series 'Looking for Love' because each photograph has been taken in the same club over a period of years. 

'The 31 predominantly colour photographs offer an anthropological glimpse into a world of youthful hopes and desires.'

It also shows more a wider story about what people were getting up to in clubs without going over the top. 

A lot of people could disagree about this picture not being voyeuristic but in my eyes a bunch of people don't get me going but then again I'm not sure about everyone else? But I could see how Merry Alpern's image could get someone going?  I believe that voyeuristic images have to shock people in a naughty way, even if you put it as an arty pornographic image?