Surveillance 101

As a photographer, I am always in search of a subject or story to capture. It is not always easy, there are days of frustration and then there are days when you know what you are working on. The series Surveillance 101, came out of my desperate attempt to find a subject or story to photograph.

One fall morning in Paris I positioned myself at a nondescript place in Paris with my camera and lenses, watching and observing people’s movement around me. People at Parisian cafes, people waiting, eating, sitting, talking, sometimes hidden. I secretly started taking their pictures without them knowing. I was invisible and very far from them. But for me they were very close and clearly visible, I was watching their every movement. The feeling of photographing people secretly became my guilty pleasure. Something that is unethical but I still do it. Am I the only one to do it? What about the CCTV cameras that we have around us? Isn’t someone watching us all the time in the name of security? I wouldn’t deny that there is a feeling of exhilaration watching someone secretly. You get to know quite a lot about the person. Also, the part where the other person doesn’t see you is an added advantage. It is a feeling of being invisible. I don’t have to ask for their permission to take their photos. I do indulge in surveillance photography every once in a while hoping to create a photo essay on my experience, creating narratives and leaving it for interpretation for the audience.