Secret photography

Secret photography involves a person or persons being unware that they are being intentionally photographed. It is sometimes called "covert photography", but this is a term used mostly among professional investigators.

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This type of photography may happen in a variety of situations, such as:

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• Fixed or mobile closed-circuit television surveillance in public areas.
• Stalking by journalists.
• Voyeuristic photography, often accompanied by erotic arousal in the photographer.
• During industrial espionage.
• During intelligence gathering by police or private investigators.
• By vigilantes.
• By political protesters or activists.
• By academics such as ethnographic researchers or participant observer sociologists.
• As a prank, eg: from a friend's mobile camera phone.

Sometimes normal cameras are used, but the photographer is concealed. Sometimes the camera itself is disguised or concealed. Some obvious element of concealment (or great distance) is generally needed to make such photography fall under the category of 'secret photography' rather than street photography or documentary photography.

Related Topics:
Street photography - Documentary photography

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It has been in use by British police since intelligence gathering on the suffragette movement in the 1900s {{ref|1}}. Some classic early U.S. street photography - such as that of Paul Strand on the Lower East Side {{ref|2}} - was obtained by fixing a second "dummy lens" to the camera, whereas the real shot was taken from the side. Since the 1950s miniaturisation has greatly aided the ability to conceal miniature cameras, and the quality and affordability of tiny cameras (often called "spy cameras" or subminature cameras) has now greatly increased. Some consumer digital cameras are now so small that in previous decades they would have qualified as "spy cameras", and digital cameras of 1.2 megapixels or more are now being embedded in some mobile camera phones.

Related Topics:
British - Suffragette - 1900s - U.S. - Street photography - Paul Strand - 1950s - Miniature cameras - Subminature cameras - Digital camera - Megapixel - Camera phone

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Some fine art photographers, such as Jeff Burton, have displayed a fascination with the forms of secret voyeuristic photography. Voyeuristic photography has also been centrally explored in movies such as Powell & Pressburger's Peeping Tom, and Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up, and has appeared to comic effect in movies such as Gregory's Girl.

Related Topics:
Fine art photographers - Jeff Burton - Powell & Pressburger - Michelangelo Antonioni - Gregory's Girl

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Secret photography: Laws and ethics ►