What is the gaze of those who control?

2560 images taken from Earthcam’s website, security camera and monitor
Seven-volume publication.

In Incidents and Situations from Common Life/ Chapter II, I turned the viewer into the object of observation. While viewing 2,560 surveillance images of Jerusalem’s Western Wall the visitor was in turn watched by a security camera and displayed on a monitor around the corner.

I found many security cameras installed in shops, banks, parks and also on the street and I asked myself: Who is controlling us? Who is watching the cameras? And who is in power to do so? There are some websites where citizens can check security cameras around the city, not for the weather, but to see someone else’s life, like people who are walking on the street, jellyfish that are swimming in an aquarium (and also people who are there to watch them). While I was looking for some subjects to focus on, I found out that there is a security camera in a zone where there are contemporary conflicts. This is a place where people can not actually feel safe: the Western Wall in Jerusalem. It was strange to discover that there was a security camera inside this place, because it is a place where people go to pray.

The Western Wall images are rearranged in a seven-volume publication.