Consent to be seen?

Brunch at one of my favourite haunts this weekend led me to stumble upon an interesting photography exhibition.

Girls UnScene, currently on display at The Luxe in London’s Old Spitalfields Market, is described as a series of photographs deliberately taken without the consent of the subjects revealing the hidden details of, and the exchanges and interactions between, females in night-club toilets, showing them in unguarded moments.

The artist, Heather Shuker, explains:

“My work seeks to contradict the staged visual representation of females in public and to show how they are when behind closed doors."

Fair enough? The exhibition does indeed have some extremely strong images, but taken without the subjects’ consent? I would submit that this raises a number of important issues – privacy, image rights and reputation management to name a few.

It would be interesting to know whether Heather got any legal advice prior to embarking on this work.

Would you appreciate this photo being taken and displayed without your consent?













© Heather Skuker

The exhibition is certainly worth a trip. It remains at The Luxe until 30 November 2010