Media

June 3, 2011

Voyeurism, Exposed

A brief history of the fine line between looking and watching.

In the age of Weinergate, we are all lookers and watchers. The following selection of images from Sandra Phillips’ book, Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera Since 1870, traces the fine line between the two. Covering spy and surveillance imagery, images of violence and sexuality, the rise of paparazzi, and our incurable boner for celebrity photos, Exposed‘s 249 images show how photography shapes not just what we see but how we look at it. —Mark Murrmann

Garry Winogrand, New York, 1969. Collection SFMOMA, fractional and promised gift of Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein; © Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco.

Walker Evans, [Subway Passenger, New York], 1941; Collection SFMOMA, fractional and promised gift of Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein; © Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Harry Callahan, Atlanta,1984; Collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © The Estate of Harry Callahan, courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York .

Nan Goldin, Nan and Brian in bed, New York City, 1983; detail from The Ballad of Sexual Dependency; 1979-1996; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; © Nan Goldin; image: courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery.

Ron Galella, What Makes Jackie Run? Central Park, New York City, October 4, 1971; Collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Ron Galella, Ltd., courtesy the artist.

Tazio Secchiaroli, Anita Ekberg and Husband Anthony Steel, Vecchia Roma, 1958; Collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Tazio Secchiaroli / David Secchiaroli.

Tom Howard, The Electrocution of Ruth Snyder, 1928; Collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase.

Larry Clark, Untitled, from the portfolio Tulsa, 1971; Collection SFMOMA; © Larry Clark.

Abraham Zapruder, Assassination of John F. Kennedy, November 22, 1963, 1963; Collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © 1967 (Renewed 1995) The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. All rights reserved.

Enrique Metinides, Secuencia rescate de un suicide en la cúpula el toreo (Suicide rescue from the top of the Toreo Stadium) (detail), 1971; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Enrique Metinides.

Doris Banbury, Mamie Van Doren, 1950s; Collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Doris Banbury.

Benjamin Lowy, Iraq Perspectives II #8, 2003-2007; Courtesy the artist; © Benjamin Lowy.

Richard Gordon, San Francisco, 2004; Collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Richard Gordon.

Laurie Long, Compact, from The Dating Surveillance Project, 1998; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Laurie Long.

Shizuka Yokomizo, Stranger No. 2, 1999; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Shizuka Yokomizo.

Trevor Paglen, Chemical and Biological Weapons Proving Ground/Dugway, UT/Distance ~42 miles/10:51 a.m., 2006, 2006; Collection SFMOMA, Anonymous Fund purchase; © Trevor Paglen.

Malcome Browne, Thich Quang Duc, Buddist priest in Southern Vietnam, burns himself to death to protest the government’s torture policy against priests, June 11, 1963; Collection of Alan Lloyd Paris; ©Malcom Browne /AP.

Marcello Geppetti, (detail) Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, 1962; Courtesy Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco; © Eredi Geppetti; photo: Ben Blackwell for SFMOMA.