I Always Feel Like, Somebody's Watching Me! - Panopticon Project

For "The Panopticon and Still Image Project", I focused primarily on the idea of surveillance as a negative aspect to society. In no way was I trying to say that surveillance is irrelevant because in certain situations it is necessary and appreciated. However, when surveillance is drawn to extreme measures, like invading people’s privacy, then it becomes an issue. With that in mind, I decided to direct three separate stories with photography, all relating to one another. My first set is of one subject who grows from being tolerant to the camera, to highly outraged. This is a photo of Sash Johnston, my subject for my first set.

My second set is based on a stalking relationship. A stalker is obsessively watching a college student. I created this conflict to symbolize how the government and other organizations can watch you without you knowing. However, the watcher is not always someone with massive technology. Facebook users today are constantly watching what others are doing around them by viewing their photos, reading their statuses, checking their updates. We are constantly being watched without our knowledge. Below is a photo from my second set.

My third and final set takes place in an actual meeting. The people in the meeting were caught off guard in this shoot. They were upset because of the invasion of privacy so they released their anger on the camera itself. Here are a few photos.

The captions and title’s in all of my sets tell the story, from beginning to the end. All of the sets were designed and directed by myself. I felt like there was a message that could have been related through a series of photographs so I artistically took full advantage of it. If you wish to view my entire project, feel free to view my Flickr account.