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NYU Exhibit Explores Impact of Surveillance, Avatars on the Human Form

By DNAinfo Staff on August 10, 2010 10:53am  | Updated on August 10, 2010 12:53pm

By Tara Kyle

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — Changing perceptions of the human form, as captured through Web cameras, Google street views, documentary photography and virtual reality, are the subject of NYU’s new "Bodies in Question"exhibit.

In bringing together the work of 14 photographers from around the world, curator Fred Ritchin hoped to explore how images culled from a variety of media could shed light on key societal issues such as civil rights, marginalization, and climate change.

"We inhabit multiple worlds now. We inhabit the planet, we inhabit cities, we inhabit the worlds of families and friends and the virtual world," said Ritchin, associate chair of photography and imaging at NYU’s Kanbar Institute. "Surveillance is becoming more and more pervasive, but we don’t pay attention to it."

One of the ID photos of Algerian women captured in 1960 by Marc Garanger. For these photos for the French Army, the women were forced to remove their veils.
One of the ID photos of Algerian women captured in 1960 by Marc Garanger. For these photos for the French Army, the women were forced to remove their veils.
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Courtesy of NYU

The exhibit is highlighted by ID photographs of Algerian women taken in 1960 by Marc Garanger, then a soldier with the French Army. The Muslim women were forced to remove their veils, calling to mind a contemporary issue in France, where lawmakers will vote next month on a burqa ban.

Decades later, Garanger traveled back to Algeria, in search of some of the same women he once involuntarily photographed.

"He was very afraid they would hate him,"Ritchin said.

But in the end, many women embraced Garanger for helping them communicate the past to their children. "They became important as a part of Algerian history,"Ritchin said.

Another featured photographer, Robbie Cooper, placed portraits of real people next to images of their online avatars — virtual identities that some people spend dozens of hours per week inhabiting.

"You start to wonder, who do these people really think they are?"Richin said. "What does that mean in terms of who we become, and who we want to be?”

"Bodies in Question"will run at NYU’s Gulf + Western Gallery at 721 Broadway through Oct. 9, 2010.