630 St Clair Ave W, Toronto, Canada. Picture: Google Street View. Courtesy of Jon Rafman
Yesterday, i went to the Saatchi Gallery to see Korean Eye and the most charitable comment i’m willing to make about the show is that it has a few good moments. However, the exhibition on the top floor, The Nine Eyes of Google Street View, is worth the trip to King’s Road.
The nine eyes are the cameras mounted on the pole on top of each vehicle that Google sent around the world 5 years ago. The technology of Google Street View has sparkled moments of deep humiliation, interest from the press photography community, privacy concerns and brilliant artistic reactions.
Jon Rafman was one of the first artists who spent hours looking at the images collected by the cars and searching not just for the amusing, the ridiculous and the fortuitous but also for postcard perfect moments. And does he have an eye for stunning images…
As the artist writes: With its supposedly neutral gaze, the Street View photography had a spontaneous quality unspoiled by the sensitivities or agendas of a human photographer… capturing fragments of reality stripped of all cultural intentions.
Nacozari De Garcia – Montezuma, Sonora, Mexico. Picture: Google Street View. Courtesy of Jon Rafman
853 Ménez Ham, Kerlouan, Finistere, France, 2009. Picture: Google Street View. Courtesy of Jon Rafman
Rv888, Norway, 2010. Picture: Google Street View. Courtesy of Jon Rafman
330 R Herois de Franca, Matosinhos, Portugal. Picture: Google Street View. Courtesy of Jon Rafman
Edam, North Holland, Netherlands, 2009. Picture: Google Street View. Courtesy of Jon Rafman
5 Rua Tocachi, São Paulo, Brasil, 2010. Picture: Google Street View. Courtesy of Jon Rafman
NánRén Rd, Manjhou Township, Pingtung County, Taiwan 947, 2011. Picture: Google Street View. Courtesy of Jon Rafman
51 E. Claremont St, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, 2009. Picture: Google Street View. Courtesy of Jon Rafman
Without indication of their location:
Looks like Trellick Tower in North Kensington, London.
Picture: Google Street View. Courtesy of Jon Rafman
Picture: Google Street View. Courtesy of Jon Rafman
Probably my favourite:
Picture: Google Street View. Courtesy of Jon Rafman
The Guardian has the best slideshow and The Independent has the most informative interview with Rafman.
The Nine Eyes of Google Street View is at the Saatchi Gallery, in London until Thursday to 29 August 2012.
Previously: Community Performance in Google Street View, Aaron Hobson’s Cinemascapes: Google Street View Edition which i discovered at the London Festival of Photography, and Michael Wolf, We are watching you…