Today’s urban society is subject to a high degree of surveillance, whether on the streets, in
public spaces or sometimes even in private. The surveillance camera with its invisible
representatives of control in the background has in a way become a symbol of our new
reality. With this project, I try to question this reality and show an inverted reality in which
the observed people disappear from the surface of the photos and only the empty spaces
remain.

I explored this idea by placing self-built camera obscura’s at high points of busy public places
and leaving them there for 4-12 weeks so that the cameras took pictures with long exposure
times and the places appeared empty. In this way, the place itself is brought to the foreground
and becomes more significant, encouraging us to reflect on its function and also to dwell on
the memories associated with these places.

Dimensions of the photograph:
Inkjet print 80x80cm framed