Barbara Probst: Exposures

Barbara Probst’s series Exposures (2000–2006) dissects the relationship between the photographic “moment” and perceived reality by showing a single action from numerous points of view.

Probst arranges for numerous photographers to take pictures of the same subject from varying angles (and distances) at precisely the same moment. The cameras vary in format and are loaded with different films, adding to the diversity of the resulting images. In one grouping, a vibrant photograph of a woman in a crosswalk shows the same moment as a grainy black and white image of the same woman, seen from above, through a window.

The multiple exposures are more than a meditation on the event being recorded — the images examine the act of reading photographs as documents of the actions or people they depict. While one may suggest voyeuristic qualities, another incorporates the slipshod framing of a snapshot, and another image may more closely resemble a runway shot of a model on the move. In this way Probst’s sequences point out that the different ways we “direct” a photograph, by the position, settings, and film of the camera, can produce images with entirely disparate spheres of meaning.