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.
 

Andy Warhol, Blow Job (film still), 1964; collection and © 2010 The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, a museum of Carnegie Institute. All rights reserved.
 

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.
 
kennedy assasination

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.
 

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

Kohei Yoshiyuki
Japanese, born 1946

Untitled, from the series The Park, 1971


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We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

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