Freja Mitchell
Intersection Detail (Intersection) Detail (Intersection) Intersection Intersection Intersection Installation detail (Intersection)
Intersection
Intersection is an installation of four eighteen feet long digital prints that comprise nearly two hundred images of people in their cars waiting for the traffic light to turn. To make the work, I stand on the traffic median during rush hour, pointing my camera into people's cars without their permission. Within the safety of their cars, people believe themselves to be in private compartments, when they are in a public space. Arranged in grids, the individual pictures are closely cropped around the driver’s windows and each face peers directly back at the viewer, enraged, stunned, confused, violated. By performing photography as public spectacle, I create images that explore the notion of personal space in a culture that is under increasingly heightened surveillance. This process allows me to confront the invasive and overbearing nature of photographing people. As an artist, I am troubled by the imbalance of power that exists between a photographer and his/her subject, and I wrestle with the ethical implications of taking pictures of people without their consent. For Intersection, I openly violate people’s privacy in order to address the aggressiveness of photography.
BACK TO PORTFOLIO