Gail Albert Halaban Shoots 'Paris Views' For Her 'Out My Window' Voyeuristic Images
/
New York photographer Gail Albert Halaban began her body of work ‘Out My Window’ in 2007 — inspired as Halaban explains in an AOC Salon video by her own noctural poses in the window, holding her awake baby. Through this experience, the artist became aware — not only of the sensual aspect of voyeurism — but the search for human connection in a digital world.
Her exquisitely framed images infuse the architecture first of New York and then Paris in 2012 and 2013, after Le Monde’s M magazine photo editor Cathy Remy became acquainted with Halaban’s work, as an integral aspect of each image.
Part fantasy, part reality, Halaban’s cinematic images seek intimacy in the feelings of isolation that permeate ordinary life in many cities.
Note that all of Halaban’s subjects knew they were being photographed and cooperated in organizing access to the building being photographed from a nearby location that itself became the subject in the next photograph.Remy and Halaban found participants through Facebook, friends of friends and spreading chatter about the project.
“Some Parisians were horrified that [it] might be criminal or immoral,” explained Halaban. “One might assume that the French are more free or uninhibited as they are portrayed in the movies, but my experience was that they are very carefully guarded about what strangers should know about other strangers.”
