IT'S EASY TO FIND discussion online about the legality of public photography and I knew I was being observed by at least two cameras when I snapped a shot above Dublin Airport's departure area (at left). The CCTV cameras that watched me were technocratic examples of the voyeurism that George Orwell and Michel Foucault described in the 20th century. CCTV has become much more pervasive since those two authors described a Panopticon. Photographer Erin Quinn's new show brings the surveillance society into sharp focus during a week-long show in Dublin. Her photographs drill home the manner in which we are watched, recorded and archived. She shot most of her subjects while perched above the crowd in the Dublin Airport, similar to the position I used for several images in my Flickr photostream. Her exhibition is worth visiting, especially for people who have never considered themselves through the iris of a closed circuit security camera.
Surveillance is at the Centre for Creative Practises, 15 Pembroke Street Lower, Dublin 2, Ireland through 19 August 2010.
