Sheri Lynn Behr
Sheri Lynn Behr
BeSeeingYou
8" x 8.75"
Soft Bound
76 Pages
150 Copies
Self Published
2018
About the Book:
BeSeeingYou examines the issues surrounding the ever-encroaching advances in surveillance, and explores the disappearance of privacy in public and private spaces. With concerns about today's intrusions into our personal lives, the book raises questions that come from a claustrophobic sense of being constantly observed.
Named one of the Best Photography Books of 2018 by Elizabeth Avedon.
Book review by Dana Stirling |
I met Sheri Lynn Behr back in 2019 at the Photolucida portfolio reviews, which is where I first got to see her book BeSeeingYou and learn more about it.
I think in a time of hyper documented society, if in social media, camera surveillance, smart phones, web camera, billboards and much more – we are always seeing and are always being seen. This duality is both consensual, when we are aware of our sharing of images and expect them to be seen [social media for example] and the non-consensual of surveillance is an intense line we keep crossing all day every day.
We are afraid to be seen when we are not aware or don’t want to, but we also allow ourselves to document every cup of joe on our feed and bringing everyone into our homes. We try and “Curate” what others see and are afraid of what might be seen that is not by choice.
In addition to the personal, we also talk in media about the repercussion these cameras have on our society, safety, privacy and the power big companies or governments might have based on this data.
In this work, Sheri points out the amount of cameras around us. While she is working on taking pictures of the city and its people, she herself is also being photographed in a way – by these cameras. She started to point her camera back at them – documenting them in their environment and capturing their involvement in our everyday life. I think an interesting aspect of the work is that Sheri started to also point her camera to surveillance camera that are on our TV screen and not only in the real world. Showing how these cameras are literally, everywhere. There is almost no escape from them even in a cartoon show like the Simpsons.
These cameras become an object within these images – and it feels like a Droste effect, an image of an image of an image and it feels endless. We are always looking always being looked and the cycle is endless. These cameras become this poetic object within the scene of the urban landscape, they became beautiful and perhaps it is a part of why we are so desensitized to them because they blend so well within the scene we are walking in every day.
Photographers, and some would say street photographers in particular, act like surveillance cameras themselves – documenting everything around them, capturing people in the city and in many cases in a very one-sided relationship and with no consent or awareness of the person being photographed. Sheri’s work deals with this notion as well, as she herself acted as a surveillance camera while documenting people on the street and through store windows.
This project and the way the book itself is curated and edited, make it seem like an index, a collection of cameras and their types, shapes, visuals and their quality. It creates a visual book of what we should be looking for in our street almost like a survival guide.
This book has an interesting editing and sequencing, the use of image juxtaposition makes it a fun visual read that keeps it open enough for the viewer to read for themselves within the guided view of the images.
Please consider getting a copy of this book by clicking the link below to support the artist.
