Thomas Demand’s Camera shows a still frame taken from a high-definition projection showing the motion of an airport surveillance camera. The film was made with a mobile phone camera at a small Brazilian airport. You can hear a strange airport sound as the camera moves from left to right. In the middle of the film, the camera briefly focuses directly on the viewer, showing the juxtaposition between filming and simultaneously being filmed.
Laurie Long’s The Dating Survelliance Project is a collection of videos and stills gathered by the artist on a series of dates. Wearing a hidden video camera and microphone she recorded each date. Some of her dates agreed to let her film beforehand and some didn’t know they were being filmed.
Laurie Long, Hairbrush 1998
Although Long’s subjects may have been aware that they were being filmed, they did not know where the camera was concealed. This helps to make it appear less self-conscious and shifts the focus away from the camera. Long draws parallels between dating and being on a spy mission, the experience of covertly filming becomes similar to behaving like a private detective.
Laurie Long, Hairbrush 1998
Mens shoes with hidden camera in heel
The unseen photographer section of the exhibition shows both objects and images that relate to photographs taken without the knowledge or permission of those depicted. This image shows a camera hidden in the heel of a man’s shoe. During the nineteenth century cameras were hidden in things like shoes, books and items of clothing.
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