NYC artist’s secret photos of neighbours raise privacy issues; for some, ‘a line crossed’

NEW YORK, N.Y. – A New York City artist has turned his neighbours across the street into subjects for his latest exhibit.

Arne Svenson pointed his camera at the floor-to-ceiling windows of a luxury building in the city’s Tribeca neighbourhood from his second-floor apartment across the street. The images show residents doing mundane things like napping, cleaning and putting children to bed.

Even though the photos don’t reveal faces, not all residents are happy knowing they’ve become subjects for an artist while in the privacy of their own homes.

Neighbour Michelle Sylvester says Svenson crossed a line by photographing the building’s dwellers without their knowledge.

Svenson says his neighbours were performing “on a stage of their own creation with the curtain raised.”

The photos are on sale for up to $7,500 at Manhattan gallery.