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Exhibition

Exposed

Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera since 1870
May 28, 2010–January 8, 2012

Investigating the shifting boundaries between seeing and spying, the private act and the public image, Exposed challenges us to consider how the camera has transformed the very nature of looking. Bringing together historical and contemporary photographs, films, and video works by both unknown photographers and internationally renowned artists, this provocative exhibition examines some of the camera’s most unsettling uses, including pornography, surveillance, stalking celebrity, and witnessing violence. Exposed poses compelling and urgent questions about who is looking at whom, and why.

Exhibtion Preview

A color photograph of a woman wearing a red dress seen from below and behind, Callahan
A black and white photograph of two men kissing on the street, Winogrand
A color photograph of a Caucasian woman seen through a lit window. Yokomizo
Black and white photograph of actress Greta Garbo with a hand in front of her face, Dudognon
A black and white photograph depicting a Caucasian policeman with a dog barking at an African American man, United Pres International
A black and white photograph of a group of Caucasian men sitting in an ornate drawing room, Salomon
A sepia toned photograph of a woman strapped to an electric chair, Howard

Harry Callahan, Atlanta, 1984; collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Estate of Harry Callahan

Garry Winogrand, New York, 1969; collection SFMOMA, gift of Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein; © Estate of Garry Winogrand, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Shizuka Yokomizo, Stranger No. 2, 1999; collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Shizuka Yokomizo

Georges Dudognon, Greta Garbo in the Club St. Germain, ca. 1950s; collection SFMOMA, Foto Forum purchase; © Georges Dudognon

United Press International, Suffolk, Virginia, Race Confrontation, May 6, 1964, 1964; collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Erich Salomon, Hague Conference, 1930; promised gift of Paul Sack to the Sack Photographic Trust of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Tom Howard, The Electrocution of Ruth Snyder, 1928; collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase

Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera Since 1870 is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Tate Modern. Major support for the exhibition is provided by the Trellis Fund and the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation. Generous support is provided by Linda and Jon Gruber. Additional support is provided by Randi and Bob Fisher, Nion McEvoy, Kate and Wesley Mitchell, Susan Swig, Lucinda Watson, and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy/Consulate of France in San Francisco.