you don`t see me if I don`t see you
text by Noah Angell
“You don’t see me if I don’t see you”, the title of this series of photographs by Veronika Spierenburg mimics the names of those childhood games like “hide & go seek” and “peek-a-boo”, which draw upon the binary pleasures/dangers of viewing others, of stealing a private moment, of potentially being caught in the act of seeing or being seen by another. Some of the early pleasures of viewing are premised upon what it means to see another- to observe and take possession of their secrets, to gain power over them by “spying”. In these photographs there is not only the child peering through the bushes but also the pervert, the nosy neighbor, just as formally the familiar distance from the subject recalls the photographic mode of the ethnographer, the photojournalist, and the documentarian. I am also reminded of Vito Acconci’s Following piece (1969) where for thirty days he followed one stranger per day around New York City, on foot until they entered the doors of a private residence – the game ended there. It is an unexpected feature of urbanization that the closer we live to one another – the more densely populated an area we live in – the more people we see each day with whom we will never speak. Simultaneously, there is also the disappearance of private space due to increased surveillance (to photograph this disappearance of private space as Spierenburg does is a notable irony) and the near absence of unrestricted space in the city. Some of these photographs are shot in public parks, which are a kind of officially designated space for rest, leisure, and gathering – presumably because doing so elsewhere is discouraged. The camera is able to register the subject’s attempt at being alone but also to threaten its success in doing so. Indeed the photographer’s task here is also a solitary one that would be spoiled by the subject making eye contact with us. This game is indicative of a larger condition in which we see each other but pretend not to, so that we may each go about our way leaving the other undisturbed, but still sneaking a look at them before they disappear from sight.