No Man's Land

No Man's Land - a new body of work by photographer Mishka Henner - has gone up as a part of the Deutsche Borse Photography Prize 2013 at the Photographers Gallery. I popped along, and out of all the works in this years shortlist - this one definitely made me frown and scratch my stubble the most.

"No Man's Land represents isolated women occupying the margins of southern European environments. Shot entirely with Google Street View, Henner's method of online intelligence-gathering results in an unsettling reflection on surveillance, voyeurism and the contemporary landscape."

A nice concept and I certainly see that the google imagery, devoid of human objectivity or imposed narrative, give an objective take on a subject so fraught with emotion - however ... and the big however : are these his images to exhibit?

Google are very clear on the issue of exhibiting their imagery : http://www.google.co.uk/permissions/geoguidelines.html

From what I can see - Mishka has entered and is exhibiting 'work' that he hasn't produced - with a potential payoff of £30,000.00 if he wins the prize. Have Google ok'd this - did he approach them?

Hmmmmm, lots of questions, and certainly a very provocative choice of shortlist for such a high profile Prize. What example does this set regarding image ownership...finders keepers? 

( images + official synopsis taken from http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk ... and yes, I appreciate the irony in me screengrabbing from the internet and re-posting! )