Northlight Gallery
605 E. Grant Street, Phoenix, Az, 85004
― Susan Sontag, On Photography
Perception is a process of absorbing information through the senses. It is a porous exchange between the body and the world, rearranging what we think we know. When we collect this data, it is formed into an observation. Whether under a consensus or not, this interaction establishes an active relationship, tying the subject to the viewer and vice versa.
In the context of lens-based photographic practices, this relation is at the core of the artist’s intent, but what happens when we become subjects of pure accumulation, of traffic, storage, and capital? When the majority of our portrayals lack intentionality? When our lives are documented through randomized processes of bureaucracy?
In “Smile! You’re on Camera”, we question the relationship between autonomy and networked photography. We observe, analyze, and interpolate our own perspectives on digital media as it relates to our daily lives under algorithmic culture. In the context of the Non-Place theorised by Marc Auge, these works focus on mundane locations with high human traffic, as well as on personal spaces of intimacy and everything in between. Collectively, we examine the overlapping roles of observers and subjects, highlighting specific political and socioeconomic conditions that mold and are molded by an intense surveillance state.
Curated by Nathan Garcia