The Neighbors

Arne Svenson's clothbound monograph collects the photographs of unwitting neighbors he made with an inherited telephoto lens from his Tribeca studio window, a series that provoked national debate over surveillance and privacy when it was first exhibited in 2013.

After inheriting a telephoto bird-watching lens, Svenson began photographing residents of the glass-walled apartment building across the street, catching them, unstaged and unaware, framed by their own windows: napping, eating breakfast, talking on the phone. The compositions have been compared to Vermeer interiors and Edward Hopper's isolated figures, tender in tone but frankly voyeuristic in method. Following an August 2013 exhibition, the series drew extensive press coverage and a lawsuit from photographed residents, arriving at a moment of heightened public anxiety over surveillance and the boundary between public and private space.

This first book collection of the project, published by Julie Saul Gallery and distributed by D.A.P./Artbook, prints 42 full-color plates with an accompanying text by critic David Ebony.