Street View

The preoccupation with daily urban occurrences – the center of this exhibition– is rooted in the heritage of mid-20th century "Decisive Moment" photographers, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Walker Evans, Robert Frank and others. Street photographers used techniques meant to emphasize the immediacy of the gaze and the haphazardness of the moment. They were influenced by the writings of Charles Baudelaire, who claimed the role of the modern artist is "to represent life as it is experienced in reality".

Baudelaire, who described the experience of the "stroller" or the flâneur, argued that strolling is a defining activity for the modern artist's work. According to Walter Benjamin, strolling itself poses a threat to the source of authority. The consumeristic-proprietorial perception views strollers as homeless, the drunken dwellers of sidewalks, and members of dubious street gangs living in society's fringes who are condemned for expulsion as a social nuisance. Strolling denies the consumeristic culture, which promises popularity and attraction for those who consume the "right" things.

Voyeurism in the public sphere, like strolling, is also perceived as a negative, even criminal activity. The voyeur is commonly perceived to secretly and intentionally head out on his obsessive strolls. The voyeuristic motive, which underlines the exhibition's works, brings to the forefront the transgressive, what is not to be looked upon. These photographs aim to document the dark corners of modern life as a pronounced example of the desire to identify an element of intimacy precisely in the all-documenting society.

Participating artists: Ella Amitay Sadovsky, Yiftach Belsky, Anat Ben Shaul, Yossi Ben-Shoshan & Meirav Heiman, Ofer Bessudo, Brassaï, Eitan Buganim, Paolo Cirio, Mai Daas, Tali Eshkol, Cherine Fahd, Hanna Sahar, Cammie Toloui, Yuval Yairi, Kohei Yoshiyuki