For my photo essay I wanted to show and illustrate some points about privacy. A little while back I came up with an idea that the saying “Privacy is power” is in fact wrong. To sum it up, power is having influence over the behavior of others. And being private means minimal contact with others, so for those who are not super wealthy, privacy has an inverse relationship with power. This would be much easier to do using screenshots. But I wish to show the effect in our physical world.
I wish to start by making some points about how sacrificing our privacy is something necessary to participate in society (to a certain extent). Some of my ideas for this include:
1. Photo peering over someones shoulder, taking a photo as they enter their phone pin (long shutter time so that movement is indicated and we can roughly see all the buttons they press)
2. Students entering and leaving Baruch (We now know where they go to school)
3. Someones name on their Starbucks drinksFinally I wish to depict situations where individuals are giving up their privacy, in exchange for power. Hopefully I will be able to catch a protest or conference/speaking event.