Photo from Arne Svenson's exhibit, The Neighbors
For a year, Arne Svenson secretly took photos of a New York City family living in a loft across from his apartment. He put the photos on exhibit and family sued, but lost, because the judges said the photos were works of art.
The judges said Svenson's protracted lurking in the shadows of his darkened apartment was "disturbing" but neither a violation of criminal stalking laws nor a violation of the family's civil rights as state law is now written because Svenson's photos were works of art.
The Fosters and their neighbors became aware that they had been photographed when Svenson's pictures were exhibited at a New York gallery in a show called "The Neighbors."
The pictures show people in the seven-story modern building in every day activities: taking naps, scrubbing floors, bathing toddlers. Their faces are mostly hidden.
In an interview with Petapixel, Svenson said he was surprised that his photos of the family were controversial.
