Spanish photographerOscar Monzón sees two contradictory worlds colliding in photography today. On the one hand, cameras and photos are everywhere thanks to camera phones. On the other, restrictions about where photos can be taken have only been increasing. (Look at the battle between the NYPD and photographers at the Occupy protest and the numerous photographers hassled by private security guards.) People have also become more guarded about protecting their digital image and often don't want their picture taken unless they have control of it.
"When I raise my camera in public people immediately want to know what I'm doing," he says.
It's a phenomenon Monzón, 31, has decided to confront head on with his ongoing project Sweet Car.
In the project Monzón takes photos of people at night while they sit unknowingly in their cars at stoplights in downtown Madrid. Standing on a bridge or the street he zooms in with a telephoto lens and pops them with a flash.
While some might call it voyeuristic, Monzón says he never tries to hide himself from view and argues that he's not trying to steal private pictures but instead wants to remind people that photographs are legal in public spaces and cause no immediate harm.
"It's definitely about confronting them," he says.
He chose the car as a location to photograph because it’s a spot that blurs the lines between public and private.
"It's an intimate space but the drivers are out in public," he says.
The name for the project, "Sweet Car," is a play on the saying "Home, sweet home."
So far Monzón says no one has ever gotten out of their car and chased him but he has managed to piss a lot of people off.
"Their first reaction is fear and then it's anger," he says. "The photo where then man is throwing the finger sums the project up well."
In addition to the reactions, Monzón has also nailed a surprising number of intimate frames that hold up well on their own as documentary work. Like the best of street photography, the photos reveals interesting slices of personality and capture some unexpected moments.
"Each photo has its own message," he says.
Ultimately Monzón says he wants the project to be about people and their relationship to cameras. The shock value is meant to expand the conversation and he hopes that by over-doing it the public will realize photography is just like any other medium used to record, critique or analyze the world around us.
"Say I was a painter in a park, no one would react like that," he says. "People should not get so upset."
All photos: Oscar Monzón
