Exposed

Is it really ok to invade someones privacy, to take graphic photos and pictures of war like scenes? What impact would it have on regular or even innocent citizens? To answer these questions (and because i like seeing exhibitions), I visited the famous Tate Modern's exhibition titled 'Exposed : Voyeurism, Surveillance & the Camera'. It was a huge collection, featuring various photographers : Weege,Nick Ut, Walker Evans and Bruce Naumen, to name a few. As soon as we entered, we saw photos of people in subways, all who were unaware that they were being photographed. Moving into the other rooms, the tate gives us a taste of a variety of topics such as celebrity and the public gaze, voyeurism and desire, winessing violence, and surveillance. It opened my eyes to the different ways and techniques of taking photographs- hiding cameras in places such as handbags and walking sticks. There was one photograher who had called up strangers and asked them to come to their home windows, in order for him to take their picture, there was another that had taken photos of the same thing at different times of the day, making a kind of visual diary. In answer to the questions mentioned above, I think that it is still a controversy; it does give us insight into an array of things, but the question is whether it is worth invading privacy and exposing secrets.