Photographer Tomas van Houtryve used a drone camera to juxtapose innocent moments on American soil with captions referencing parallel scenes and situations involving militaristic actions or operations abroad. “Wedding”, an image from the project, “Blue Sky Days,” references the more insidious side of military surveillance and, particularly, notorious western military strikes that have taken place in Pakistan.
On March 1, 2015, the BagNews Salon, teaming with the Open Society Foundation, presented an online discussion examining how the world of surveillance is being reflected and mirrored back to us. "The Lens in the Mirror: How Surveillance is Pictured in the Media and Public Culture” is available with full replay and highlight videos here.
In this highlight clip, moderator Cara Finnegan and panelists Pete Brook, Marvin Heiferman, and Rachel Hall discuss the political and cross-cultural implications of van Houtryve’s image, and how surveillance and drone imagery has become a new form of aerial photography.
For full discussion of "The Lens in the Mirror: How Surveillance is Pictured in the Media and Public Culture" — A Joint Open Society-BagNews Salon:
http://www.bagnewsnotes.com/2015/01/the-lens-in-the-mirror-osf-bagnewssalon/
More from BagNews: http://www.bagnewsnotes.com/
