Louis Cameron: Times Square Ring of Steel

Gallery@1GAP presents a series of portraits by Louis Cameron. The painting series "Times Square Ring of Steel" and "Domain Awareness," depict surveillance images downloaded from public webcams stationed in New York City.

The artist manipulates the images digitally, prints them on a large scale, and applies the prints to canvas by lifting the inks with an acrylic medium. Something transcendent occurs when he intervenes with these mechanical images: from webcam, to computer, to canvas, the manipulation of the image produces unforeseen visual and emotional affects.

In a series of black and white portraits, “Times Square Ring of Steel,” Cameron’s subject is the suspicious civilian passing through Times Square. When he chooses specific photographs from a multitude of webcam recordings, the creative act begins at the moment of selection: a passerby carrying a backpack, a woman wearing a hijab, a man in a baseball cap, and so on. Cameron’s work is not unlike traditional street reportage by photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson. Like Bresson, Cameron chooses an image at the so-called decisive moment. But while Bresson could have changed lenses, or repositioned himself to get the shot, Cameron’s perspective is one he can’t control. The contemporary artist using webcam technology is limited to the viewpoint of a covert stationary machine.

In “Domain Awareness”, a series of colorful Brooklyn landscapes, Cameron has chosen images from the borough’s busiest hubs: the Barclays Center, the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Bergen Street, and other locations. Like the familiar Google street view map system, city surveillance webcams produce online snapshots that capture the movement of traffic in real-time. Notably, for this exhibition, he photographed himself standing at Grand Army Plaza by using his cell phone to access a webcam. This elaborate self-portrait exploits the advanced technology and perspective that our particular historical moment allows. It also points to the vulnerability of any one individual to be easily located among a colossal maze of streets and buildings.

Louis Cameron, Times Square Ring of Steel, is curated by Suzy Spence.
The Gallery@1GAP
Richard Meier On Prospect Park
One Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn
About the Gallery@1GAP
The residents of the Richard Meier building in Brooklyn, ‘On Prospect Park,’ have developed an in-house art program that seeks to contribute to the creative culture and energy of Brooklyn with three art exhibitions each year; these exhibitions are oriented toward supporting and showcasing the work of New York City artists. The program engages with an extended community of art enthusiasts by opening its doors for exhibition openings, salons, and special events.
The exhibitions that fill four large rooms in the building’s common areas on the ground floor, are hand-selected by the building’s Art Committee; since 2009 the gallery has mounted numerous exhibitions by emerging and mid-career artists.
The Gallery@1GAP is a place where local artists of all backgrounds, education, experience, and personal vision are exhibited. This is a private residential building, and exhibitions are open by appointment.
http://spenceprojects.com/inner/cameron.html