The Rules of Photography at The Tate Modern

I’ve previously pointed to the interesting exhibition EXPOSED at The Tate Modern. It’s about sly photography, from (almost) the very beginning. It has been curated by Sandra S. Phillips, from the SFMMA, and while understandably there’s an American bias, there are some stunning moments. Weegee, Lee Frielander, Lee Miller, Susan Meiselas, you name them, they’re there. Images that define our understanding of photography. Politically Incorrect, mostly. Can’t wait to order the book for the Library.

The book. While I was having my snack, I began to think that the exhibition went off a little bit when in the final room when it engaged with Wilful Artful Conceptualism. By the time we get to Vito Acconci in the late 60s being photographed from behind while filming people from behind, it seemed that the whole thesis of the surreptitious photograph having an ethical tension – the tensions of invasion, control, desire, intrusion, voyeurism – was becoming an art world convention. So I thought.

So I wandered over to the stack of books where a young man was browsing the display copy, and asked him whether I could photograph him reading the Acconci page for Iconophilia. Sure, he said, and we were setting up the shot when an officious little man from the shop zoomed over to tell us we couldn’t do it, and took the book away. Why not? I asked. You’re not allowed to photograph the books, not here, he said. Even surreptitiously? I asked. No answer. What if I buy a copy? You can take it home and do whatever you like with it, he said. It’s for your own protection, he added, firmly. Meanwhile

elsewhere in the gallery people seemed to be able to photograph anything they liked, no problems. But in The Shop?  There are still boundaries to be transgressed, apparently. Especially if it’s against our own interests. When, I ask you, is it transgressive to photograph a consenting adult reading a book? Answer: when the Gallery is already full of photographs taken without their subjects’ consent.

P.S. I bought the T Shirt. Watch out for a person walking around town who has been EXPOSED to transgressive thoughts.

P.P.S see Mark Brown’s review in The Guardian See a slideshow here.