Photography and Voyeurism: The Fine Line Between Art and Observation

Is a Photographer a Voyeur? (Column by Peter Cruiming)

Sometimes I wonder. Me with my camera, searching for that one detail others overlook.

I see the unusual in the ordinary, just like that calendar note from May 7 reminded me: “Photography requires more imagination than painting, because it means seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary.” That’s exactly what my craft is about.

But there’s a double edge. As a photographer I decide what you see. I manipulate, guide, crop, highlight. I tell a story that might not be entirely true, but evokes exactly the feeling I want to share. Does that make me an artist—or a voyeur?

Robert Redford—who passed away this week—often played the man who watched, who observed, who noticed more than the rest. Think of The Great Gatsby or Three Days of the Condor. He looked with a mix of distance and engagement.

Maybe that’s what connects us photographers to him: we’re never fully inside the moment, yet never entirely outside it either.

And maybe that’s the essence. Not peeking, but witnessing. Turning the ordinary into something remarkable—and letting the viewer believe they saw it themselves.

(Photo by Marlot-Anna Cruiming, Photographer)