I went to the SF MOMA the other day, where they had a very impressive exhibition called “Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the camera since 1870”. Exposed is a very suitable name, as people where seen doing the most embarrassing, provocative, and violent things. The concept of voyeurism has always been very interesting to me, especially as an advertising major. Looking into peoples lives without them knowing, is the only way you get a taste of the real character and lifestyle. As humans, we constantly have this shield held up when people are around us, because we want to be perceived in a certain way. Extraordinary advertising sees beyond that, and explores with a voyeuristic curiosity. 

The exhibit also portrayed the changes made in society when the hand held camera reached out to the amateurs in the later 1800’s. Kodak’s Brownie model (seen below) became one of the first mainstream cameras. And this was the key to the important destination made between taking a photo, and shooting it. The snapshot was born. 

Suddenly we could record what we saw, which came to redefine everything from how we told stories to fine art. People after a while discovered that it is more desirable to see someone in action, not knowing that you are there, than to see a staged scenario. And so paparazzi photography was born. Tazio Secchiaroli (1925-1998) was known as one of the original paparazzi, and some of his photographs where on display at the MOMA. He founded the agency Roma Press Photos in 1955 with Sergio Spinelli, which is seen as a historically significant part of the “Cicconi Archives”. This because Roma Press Photos highlighted many of the controversial topics of the time, such as the Vatican, Fascism, the House of Savoy, politics, La Dolce Vita among other. Secchiaroli is also thought to be the inspiration for the paparazzo character in Fellini’s film, “La Dolce Vita”. He invented a new genre of photography, the art of shooting celebrities against their will, because he realized this type of photography gave him a lot more money from the press than anything else. Soon his reputation had grown, and as the style became more accepted, many stars, like Sophia Loren, hired him as their personal photographer. In the shot below, Birgitte Bardot is relaxing between the scenes of the movie “Le Mepris” from 1963.

He also was responsible for a world wide gossip scandal in 1956, when one night in the aristocratic strip of bars in Via Veneto, the famous belly-dancer Aiche Nana performed some strip tease moves in front of Anita Ekberg, Elsa Martinelli, Victor Ciuffa and of course a whole bunch of well known people. The photo below was published in all kinds of magazines all across the globe, including the weekly American “Life” magazine. Soon after Aiche Nana went back to France, where strip teasing at the time was legal.  

Stepping into more controversial voyeurism, Letizia Battaglia was an italian photojournalist in Palermo, Sicily. She married when she was 16, and divorced in 1970 raising three kids on her own. It was at that time she discovered a huge passion for photography. She realized that her articles would sell a lot better with this skill, and started working for the left wing newspaper L’Ora, until it was forced to close in 1990. She had taken around 600.000 photographs by the end of her time with the newspaper, and her focus was entirely on the Sicilian Mafia and its crime against humanity. She would sometimes find herself at the crime scene of five different murders all in one day. “Suddenly”, she once said, “I have an archive of blood”. She later became involved in women’s and environmental issues, and held a seat in the Palermo city council for the Green Party between 1985 and 1997. The image below was shown at the MOMA, and caught a lot of attention, especially since the press is seen in the background.

Looking back and comparing the art of voyeurism to today, I see that the art of looking into another persons life is not as strange to us anymore. The introduction to the hand held camera scared a lot of people, thinking they would be robbed from their privacy. Now we are so used to being watched, we take it for granted. What we are concerned with now are the full body x-ray scanners that can see the contour of our curves and most intimate parts. While many people feel scared of this type invasion, I try to see it as an act of protection. All that is portrayed, displayed, exposed, will concern the public, and thereby horrible acts will be worked on for the better.