OFF THE WALL: CULTURE OF LOOKING

Voyeurism at its best.

The first thing I noticed when I walked into Paris Visone‘s photo exhibit, “Culture of Lookng,” was that I knew no one there.

I don’t mean the other people at the exhibit in Suffolk University Gallery, but rather the people hanging from the walls. The large, vibrant photos dominate the otherwise sparse, whitewashed room. The photos, in turn, are dominated by their occupants.

Each photo is a glimpse into a very personal experience, a serious glimpse into the personal life of the subjects but also of the photographer.

While the images are certainly voyeuristic, it is clear that Paris was not intruding upon the scene captured.

Instead, it is clear that she was an active participant in whatever was going on at the moment the photo was taken, a fact which makes the viewer the only true voyeur, looking through Paris’s lens and into her life.

“I mostly photograph my friends and family. I really don’t do any sort of street photography or stuff like that, because I like to focus in on what I know,” says Paris, “because it just makes everyone, I think, more comfortable. And I think you get more of a real shot when people are comfortable and not putting up this facade of ‘oh, camera’s out, let me do a pose.’”

Bolstering this level of comfort even further is how long she has been doing this. Her family has been her favorite subject since she became interested in photography in 5th grade, an interest which was sparked by watching a photo shoot of Hanson. She got her cousins to pose like they were in a band while she shot them, she says, and now “I still photograph the same cousins, but it’s a little bit different.”

The photos are proof of the effectiveness of this method. Gone are the poses and postures: each scene is real, whether it is ugly, as with the inured boy laying on the hospital table, or beautiful, like the colorful shot of three girls relaxing. Like the title says, it really is the culture of looking.