Erin Quinn - Surveillance

Artist's Statement on her work


A culmination of 18 months of research and work, this project examines and explores the rapid rise of surveillance in modern society. The photographs were taken at an international airport where the scenes unfolded naturally. The people in the photographs were unaware that they were being photographed. The camera was set up from a CCTV perspective, high above the subjects. The shutter was only released when a person entered the frame. My intention was to open an essential dialogue and to highlight the fact that CCTV can sometimes create and even breed suspicion within society, making ordinary moments appear somehow sinister. We tend to attach guilt and suspicion to surveillance imagery or images taken from this perspective. I’m interested to see how the viewer interprets these images and how they may even question their own judgement when doing so.

Photographic exhibition supported by audio notes of observations at the airport as well as video of actual CCTV footage collected from clips from various sources.

I Feel that this body of work produced by Erin Quinn fits in well with the video work that i am doing, she is looking at people from the perspective of CCTV and how CCTV can start to create a picture of whats happening, and give people a suspicious image even if they may not even be doing anything. i think it fits in well with my aim to expose people in the society and photograph them as they cross my 400MM camera lens that i am using to Survey Chester