Real Questions: Is this the work of an artist or a rape culture perp?
I have my own pejorative, strict, opinions.
I'll not express these opinions, but want to see yours.
I could learn something.
http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/06/06/the-reclusive-peeping-tom-photographer-and-his-cardboard-camera/
PLEASE read the entire thing, and LOOK at all the photographs.
Where does art and simple exploitation and rape culture truly diverge? Can it?
And about Miroslav Tichý?
What about his OTHER obsession? Building his own cameras from tape and string?
Does this make a difference? Did I dishonor them? Did I steel
OK:
There was a film called "Pretty Baby" starring one of the Carradines, Brooke Shields, who, at 12 played a 12 year old prostitute, and Susan Sarandon.
Mainstream exploitation of Sarandon's fully naked body and the threat of Brooke Shields nude at 12 sold the film.
The film was about Storyville, Louisiana, the section of New Orleans where prostitutes worked their trade, and where a photographer named E.J Bellocq did his most famous work.
The actor playing Bellocq (Carradine, IIRC)had nothing to do with the real Bellocq, who was a dwarf and was hated by everyone, pretty much. Hollywood turned him into a 6 foot tall west coat artiste'
Go read 'Coming through Slaughter' by Michael Ondaatje for what could be the closest story of Bellocq, who had, perhaps the same obsession Miroslav Tichý did.
I have argued with myself about the difference between art and exploitation for a long time.
Is Miroslav Tichý's, or Bellocq's art any more exploitative than the goddamned photo I cannot post here as a result of being conned into accepting Google Plus - so posting individual photos instead of Facebook-like photo spam and personal information cannot be done....
Two end stage drunks: one is a Ma, a 300 lb woman smoking a joint and sitting on a box of wine. The other is a 70 year old Native American sitting on the sidewalk next to Ma with an Instamatic up to his face like he's taking a photo. Looking right at me.
Send me your PM and I'll send you a copy.
I gave Ma and Superchief that box of wine to watch the front door of the Storefront Actor's Theater, where I worked.
But, really, it was to take the photo, which i (guiltily) love.
They let me take the photo for laughs. Ma is sitting on the box, Super chief holding the camera.
They have been dead for many years, I had many fine nights drinking and goofing with them both.
(Unlike Carradine or the director of 'Pretty Baby')
I get the feeling that Miroslav Tichý would have been honored to find our little enclave.
As usual, YMMV
= new reply since forum marked as read
The pics of the man taking pictures of unsuspecting women is disturbing. But a movie featuring a 12-year old girl playing a 12-year old prostitute is just insane. I'd only vaguely heard of Pretty Baby before but it won't be on my must see list of pics.
Having said that, I can't explain it but there is something truly arresting about this pic - 
Maybe it's the bare feet? Or the double exposure? I don't know. But it's amazing.
A performance artist.
Tichý certainly preferred his subjects to be women, most of whom were completely unaware that they were being photographed. Some just didn’t realize that his camera made of plywood and tin cans was even real, and would smile simply to be kind to the crazy local man with the long beard and his toy camera.
The images are innocuous and merely a record of the actual art, which was the artist himself. A man who wanted to express his individuality in a repressive regime, he found a way to mock the system that stifled him. He made clumsy absurd cameras and used his seemingly insane appearance to spy on people who, if they noticed him, thought him too ridiculous to fear. He was a voyeur hiding in plain sight, and doing so under a political system that made voyeurism public policy.
Born in 1926, Tichý could have become one of the prominent painters of the modernist Communist regime. He was accepted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, but after the Communist takeover in 1948, he grew defiant of requirements to draw socialist workers in overalls rather than female nudes and quit the prestigious school. Tichý was quickly identified as a rebel by the oppressive regime who began making attempts at “normalizing” him (whatever that entailed). After his compulsory military service, Tichý became more eccentric.
I think that he decided that if the state wanted him to conform, he would. He became his image of the state. He became a deranged lunatic with clunky cobbled together technology put to use spying on others.
I will leave it to others as to discuss and decide his motivations.
I think the photos are superb! I really enjoyed seeing the camera and lens, simply amazing what he was able to assemble out of pretty much nothing. 
Goes to the saying.... The Best Camera You Have is the One You Have With You.
Every photographer I know is a voyeur. We watch the world and document it. Anytime I take a photo of a person for the sake of art, I'm exploiting them. It all comes down to intent, IMO.
An example: I participate in a genre of photography called 'street photography.' This means I take pictures of strangers on the street. Often there is something about them or the moment that captures my attention, so I am driven to capture it with my camera. There are some, that are well known in the genre, that are very agressive about it. They get right up in the subjects face, use a flash and take a picture. They are revered as great artists.
Bruce Gilden:
Garry Winogrand:
Martin Parr:
Joel Meyerowitz:
You can argue that all art is exploitation in some form. It also comes down to what an individual considers art. One persons may see it as exploitation, another may see it as the best thing they've ever gazed upon.
