Voyeurism and Surveillance

"The subject is usually unaware, therefore  there is an element of 'spying' involved."

After reviewing and looking more in to Voyeurism and Surveillance, i felt that it was an interesting topic that is very broad and has more than one meaning, for example there are different kind of voyeurism such as explicit, sexual, security, surveillance, tv programs use voyeurism and so on. I decided to construct my own scene based upon the them of sexual voyeurism, i used a black piece of material, a doll and a piece of cardboard that i cut out into the shape of a window frame. I then used a side light to highlight half of the figure, creating the effect that it is a lamp or light from another room. I also wanted to create a lot of negative space with the image, leaving it questionable to the viewer as to if there is another person present. Holding the piece of card in front of the lens i shot the image lining up the middle of the window frame with the middle of the dolls body, i did this to disguise the fact that is it a doll and create the imagination that it is a half naked female. This related back to voyeurism as usually a window frame is within the shot, which makes it obvious to the viewer that the image has been taken from an outsiders perspective and there is a real sense of peeping tom as you are looking into somebody else private space. When thinking about the placement of props i decided to have the doll in this position as within sexual voyeurism the subject matter is usually not looking back at the camera and are un aware that they are being photograph, therefore i thought have her facing the wall would work well. I then deiced to keep the dress of the figure on but to pull it up so her bottom half would be nude, this gives the impression to the audience that some sort of sexual activity is about to take place, referring back to the facts the viewer should not be looking. I also decided to turn the image black and white as i feel it works well with the contrasts of the figure and negative space and also i feel it adds mystery to the image and gives the impression that it has been shot at night. I feel that this image works well are portrays voyeurism clearly and also plays on aspects of voyeurism such as "The subject is usually unaware, therefore  there is an element of 'spying' involved", There for making he viewer feel slightly uncomfortable in know thing that they shouldn't be looking at the content of the image and it is a breach of peoples personal spaces and activities.