November 23, 2005
Traffic: Surveillance and Immobility
Being in traffic involves inhabiting an odd space: a vehicle is a closed, bounded, seemingly private space--but one that's pierced all around by windows that subject a person to public gaze. In 1991, Jean-Christian Bourcart began photographing people stuck in traffic jams in NYC. The results are disconcerting and oddly compelling, transgressing the boundaries between public and private.
There is always a traffic jam below my windows on Canal Street. Melancholic and resigned people are waiting in their powerful sedans. Others, in Greyhound or city buses, fall asleep, stricken by the length of the day. They seem protected but lonely. Visible to all, I stand on the sidewalk, examining the traffic, my long telephoto lens ready to capture the anonymous faces through the tinted windshields.
I am conscious of how invasive my practice is. Some people try to hide behind their hands or a magazine.
Others confront my mechanical stare, abandoning their faces to a destiny they know nothing about
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The site includes an interview and a link about the book.
[via anne wysocki]
Posted by johndanseven at November 23, 2005 11:07 PM