peep show

year: 1990

technique:

sinopsis:

In the Peep-Show series, the mimetic principle in the construction of the cameras is retained. Thus the construction of the camera depends on the subject-matter of the photographs (in the same way as it occurred with the works produced by means of the cylindrical cameras). In this case, one intends to capture the atmosphere of this mode of pornographic consumption.

Peep-shows involve a user who locks himself in a dark booth and drops some coins into a slot-machine. A small curtain is drawn, not unlike a shutter, which reveals contorted bodies live. It is, indeed, an exaltation of voyeurism -a feature inherent to photography- which in this ritualized example, given the place where it is undertaken, results into a paragon of the camera obscura.

The Peep-Show Camera was the only one to have a lens placed before the pin-hole device. The lens was a made out of a door peep-hole, which reinforces the idea of voyeur on the part of the viewer.