connect!
John Waters on photography and voyeurism
Over two years, the Smithsonian Photography Initiative’s online project click! photography changes everything, has collected stories from nearly 100 contributors— public figures, experts in various fields and site visitors— about the ways photography impacts our lives.
To better understand the pull and the power of voyeurism, we turned to John Waters— known for breaking cultural taboos and pointing cameras at unusual subjects and situations— wondering what he’d have to say about the joys and hazards of compulsive looking.
As a filmmaker, visual artist, and astute observer of popular culture, Waters understands the gravitational pull and power of photographic images. In his recently published piece for click!, Waters looks at photography and voyeurism from two perspectives; he reveals what he’s felt compelled to seek out and stare at in pictures, and what it feels like to be the target of obsession and the camera’s greedy eye.
Contact: Catherine Shteynberg (202) 633-2932; spi-media@si.edu
Summary
Organized by the Smithsonian Photography Initiative (SPI) and curated by Marvin Heiferman, click! photography changes everything invites the public to consider the many and surprising ways photography enables us to see, experience, and interact with the world. click’s illustrated stories and videos reveal how photography impacts our lives, history and culture— from anthropology to astrophysics, media to medicine, philosophy to sports, and love to war. Consider how photography changes Who We Are, Where We Go, What We See, What We Want, What We Do and What We Remember.
At this transitional moment in global culture, as digital technology radically alters the form, content, and distribution of camera images, it is important to re-examine and assess the history, practice, and cultural impact of photography. Click provides a unique opportunity to explore how and why photographs encode information and values, hold our attention, and how the meaning of photographs change, depending upon on the perspectives we bring to them.
Quote
Attributed to Marvin Heiferman, guest curator and creative consultant for click! photography changes everything:
"While we see and use photos all the time,
About click! photography changes everything
Organized by the Smithsonian Photography Initiative (SPI) as a series of integrated programs, click! photography changes everything invites the public to consider ways in which photography enables us to see, experience, and interact with the world. The goal of click! is to argue for a broader, more inclusive social and cultural history of photography, and a deeper understanding of the role photographs play as active agents of change.
About the Smithsonian Photography Initiative
The Smithsonian Photography Initiative (SPI) falls under the division of the Smithsonian Institution Archives and exists to increase public understanding of the photography collections from the Smithsonian's museums, research centers, and the National Zoo. Leveraging emerging new media, SPI seeks to create new opportunities for research and scholarship about the cultural impact of photographs. Through interactive, online exhibitions, publications, and educational outreach, SPI is dedicated to engaging new and existing Smithsonian audiences in a dialogue about the nature and meaning of images today.
Tags:
click! photography changes everything, community, creative, critical thinking, documentary, education, educational, Flickr Commons, interactive, journalism, journalistic, Marvin Heiferman, media, museums 2.0, photo, photo community, photo criticism, photo history, photo project, photo theory, photographic, photography, photojournalism, sharing, Smithsonian, Smithsonian Photography Initiative, social media, SPI, stories, story, visitor contributed content, user contributed content, web 2.0, writing, storytelling, John Waters, voyeurism
Links:
- http://click.si.edu/
- http://flickr.com/photos/Smithsonian/
- http://click.si.edu/Connect.aspx
- http://photography.si.edu/
- http://www.si.edu/
- http://blog.photography.si.edu/
Contact:
- Catherine Shteynberg
- Media Contact
- (202) 633-2929
- spi-media@si.edu
- http://click.si.edu/
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