Tag: photography

Yesterday I headed to the Museum für Fotografie to see two exhibitions on surveillance.

The Field Has Eyes. Images of the Surveillant Gaze includes 75 prints, books, photographs and examples of optical apparatus to present a visual and cultural history of the controlling gaze from the 16th to the 20th century. I don’t have many images because ironically the museum of photography does not allow photographs.

Daniel Chodowiecki. The Eye of Providence. 1787. Etching, 4 x 5′”

Still, I was able to track down many works online. An example is this one, which focuses on the “all seeing eye” of God as a heavenly entity that watches over everyone like Daniel Chodowiecki’s The Eye of Providence (1787).

Johann Paul Pöhlmann. Gottes Augen schauen auch in die heimlichen Winkel (English: “God’s eyes also look into the secret angles”), Kupferstich: 135 x 165 mm, 1809

This view of God as a watcher later evolved into a sort of big brother figure like in Gottes Augen schauen auch in die heimlichen Winkel (English: “God’s eyes also look into the secret angles”), a copperplate by Johann Paul Pöhlmann from 1809. Here the all seeing eye is essentially a surveillance camera, encouraging potential law breakers to heed the warning that their bad deeds won’t go unpunished. This sort of indoctrination was easily transferred to messages from political bodies wishing to keep the behavior of their citizens inline as nation states emerged.

Watching You, Watching Me. A Photographic Response to Surveillance shows works by 10 contemporary artists using photography to address surveillance. This exhibition was sponsored by the Open Society Foundation.

Andrew Hammerand. The New Town. 2013.

In Andrew Hammerand’s The new town (2013), the artist captured surveillance images from a camera placed in the center of an idealized planned community in the American Midwest. These are haunting and beautiful reminders of the gaze of the all seeing eye, and the inability to escape from it in even the most ideal locations.

Julian Roeder. Thermal Imaging Camera, Northern Greece, 2012, Archival Pigment Print, 152 x 109 cm

Julian Roeder. Tracking Dog, Northern Greece, 2012, Archival Pigment Print, 152 x 109 cm

Julian Roeder’s Mission and Task (2012) consists of images of the technology and people working in contemporary surveillance at the border of the Schengen zone.

Mari Bastashevski & Privacy International. Private Interests. 2014

Mari Bastashevski & Privacy International presented photographs and evidence of Central Asian governments use of electronic surveillance technologies to spy on activists and journalists, domestically and abroad, in order to clamp down on dissent and to reinforce their political
control. This installation included the stories of several Uzbekistan journalists and lawyers who were surveilled, intimidated, and threatened with prison for their work. This project is covered in detail in this PDF.

Hasan Elahi. Thousand Little Brothers.

In response to questioning by the FBI in suspicious post-9/11 USA, Hasan Elahi created Thousand Little Brothers which includes 32,000 photographs he made during his ongoing project to give the FBI every detail of his life, especially the mundane.

Both exhibitions are up until 2 July, 2017.

There is much interest in my project here at the Coleman Center. People stop by every hour with photographs and stories of their past experiences and motivations for joining the service.

To My Dearest and Beloved Family, Aubrey, England, May 3, 1945

On Monday I worked with the Art Club, showing them how to use the equipment and talking about the many different ways the military is represented through photography and film.

Touching up a WWI image

Fred Adams and his portrait

Robot self-portrait #3 (Disneyland)

Robot self-portrait #4 (Disneyland)

Robot self-portrait #5 (Disneyland)

Robot self-portrait #6 (Dublin)

Robot self-portrait #7 (Golden Gate Bridge)

Robot self-portrait #1 (Tallahassee)

Robot self-portrait #2 (Tallahassee)

This week I am installing an ambitious new project in a quaint and friendly space called bauer&ewald located in Kreuzberg / Neuköln (Berlin) opening on May 7 until the end of June. There will be a party on the evening of the opening day. Please come if you are in town.

You can see a video of a small study online here and here.

A Single Composite
Owen Mundy

May 7–June 24

Vernissage (opening): May 7, 19:00+
Finissage (closing): June 23, 19:00+

“Nothing now distinguishes the function of the weapon and the eye; the projectile’s image and the image’s projectile form a single composite.”
—Paul Virilio in “War & Cinema”

A Single Composite is a kinetic installation and multi-projection/viewing apparatus consisting of one 100cm wide film strip stretched, twisted, and looped through multiple spaces by reconstituted digital printer chassis. This cinematic enterprise, a sprawling film through which declassified and other found reconnaissance footage is projected on walls, ceilings, and floors, forms a series of individual moments of surveillance and implied violence.

Bauer&Ewald
Lenaustraße 20
12047 Neukölln-Berlin
u8 schönleinstraße, u7/u8 hermannplatz

http://bauerundewald.com

Öffnungszeiten (open hours):
Mo-Sa ab 18:00, So ab 16:00
jeweils bis spätnachts (until late)

A study for an upcoming installation in Berlin.

A study for an upcoming installation in Berlin.

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google Inc., at Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, February 16, 2011

Just received files from the portraits taken during The Americans exhibition in Niceville, FL. See more images on my website.

Many thanks to K.C. Williams, Director of the Holzhauer Gallery at Northwest Florida State College for her help in coordinating this project.

I am very much enjoying the video my friend, Asa Gauen, is working on for You Never Close Your Eyes Anymore, which is installed at AC Institute in New York until July 31.

Just installed “The Americans” exhibition and artwork with the same title. Here are the details:

The Americans
June 20–July 25, 2010
Holzhauer Gallery
Northwest Florida State College
Niceville, Florida

More photos from You Never Close Your Eyes Anymore production.

The florescent bulbs and light kit arrived this week and it was good to see the results of my research. I only found one problem in that the 105W (400W incandescent equivalent) daylight-balanced florescent bulbs were so large the base of the bulb prevented them from fitting into the fixtures.

I expected they would be bigger than usual, but (in the photos) its amazing how much larger they are than a standard 15W (40W equivalent) florescent bulb. To reiterate, the part you screw into the fixture is a standard (E26) Edison Screw type cap, the same type found on most home incandescent and CFL bulbs.

I was able to solve the problem for less than $5 at the local big box hardware store with two $2 fixture extenders, and luckily the rod of the reflector umbrellas just barely clear the big bulbs.

The fixtures are made to carry 250W so it is fine that my bulbs only draw 105W each. The adjustable mount for the lamp fixtures, however, are a little precarious. They are not made to support the weight of these larger bulbs along with the umbrellas so I had to tighten them more than usual. In the future I may find a better solution, but for this project they will do fine.

Here are some initial tests with the kit and bulbs. These were shot with one light in Camera Raw with a Canon G9, ASA 100, f/3.2 @ 1/13 between 6-10′ from the lights.

And these at f/4 @ 1/13 with both lights at around the same distance.

Update on the photo studio project: I still need a flag and pole (any ideas?) but some advice from a friend and additional research has yielded a great inexpensive lighting option.

The Smith-Victor KT-500U Photoflood Tungsten Light Kit with Umbrellas (B&H # SMKT500 Mfr # 401430) looks like a decent and affordable kit, about 50% of which can be found at any hardware store sans brands. But 250W is a lot of energy to waste on heat, and the Tungsten 3200ºK has a 20 hour life span, which is very short. While the daylight bulb only has a four-hour lifespan!

It has been a while since I researched studio lighting, but with developments in CFLs and LEDs you can now get high lumen, always-on lights, that don’t waste energy and create so much heat that it makes it uncomfortable to work with them.

So instead of the incandescent bulbs, I found these CFLs. They are daylight-balanced (6500ºK), 105W (400W incandescent equivalent), and have a 8000 hour life span, all for less than $30 each. Photo geeks and indoor growers also agree that the spectrum good.

So for less than $200 I’m looking at a decent set of lights that doesn’t require a light meter (I have a grey card) and doesn’t get hot. It’s quite bright, but I can move it back or bounce it off or through the umbrella.

I’m working on a new project to recreate a military portrait studio encountered during my previous life as a Navy photographer. In June 2010 I will install it in a solo exhibition at Holzhauer Gallery, Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, Florida, nestled neatly at the edge of Eglin Air Force Base, the “largest air base in the free world.” (quoted from a display at the nearby Air Force Armament Museum)

The project is inspired by rediscovering the Navy photo manual that was issued to me in April 1993 when I entered A-school at the Defense Photography School in Pensacola, FL. The inspiration for this project comes from chapter 7. There are also a lot of great illustrations and photographs including:

• Page 5-2 has drawings of “photo techniques.”
• Page 4-30 has an image (from a 4×5 view camera) of the school I went to.
• Page 6-12 has an example of the old “grip and grin” ceremony.

More updates on the project will follow soon.

Below is the image and text from the email response to an interactive exhibit at Ars Electronica in Linz where you can photograph your retina.

This retina photo was taken in the BrainLab of the Ars Electronica Center Linz, Austria.
We would like to welcome you at the Museum of the Future! More information at: www.aec.at/center

Best regards,
Your Ars Electronica Team