09/01/2026
Can I go outside Daddy Flock ?
It's an absurd question to an equally absurd situation.
Why does surveillance feel so normalized that you're running out of places to not be watched?
If you don't know or have been living under a rock for the last several years, Flock safety is a network of automatic license plate reading cameras that are placed along busy roadways and shopping center entrances that follow our every move. It's marketed as a tool for local law enforcement to find suspected criminals, human and drug traffickers and despicable criminals of all sorts. An officer can search any license plate in the flock database and find every instance that you passed one of their cameras hopefully leading to the arrest of some awful criminal... they're also used by DHS and ICE to locate and track the movements of anyone they think might be the wrong kind of brown. We need to feel safe. So safe that there's nothing stopping everyone and anyone from stalking you legally or otherwise?
If YoU aReN't DoInG aNyThInG wRoNg, WhY dO yOu CaRe?!? That's a pretty awful fu***ng standard for privacy. If it was a flawless system that you could opt out of and no one nefarious could gain access to it, I would feel similarly. However not only can you not opt out, it's getting harder and harder to not have digital eyes on you anywhere you go. I can opt out of carrying a phone- that already tracks everything I say, do and places I go. I'm not handed a phone by the government and told to keep it on me at all times. I can leave it off, at home or just not have one to begin with. You can't do that with Flock or Axon cameras. Well, not legally anyway.
I staged a picnic at Hobart Urban Nature Preserve in front of Flocks falcon ALPR to bring awareness to the dystopian future we're on track for living in. I was intentionally absurd with my imagery. I had my model dress in a plaid skirt, knee highs, Mary Janes, and white cotton underwear. The juvenile styling is deliberate. It's about innocence, vulnerability, authority and control. It's about taking something that should feel completely ordinary—an adult going outside for a picnic—and putting it under the gaze of a system that can observe, record and identify people without asking their permission.
If you believe surveillance is acceptable because you trust the people in charge right now, ask yourself how comfortable you'd be handing that same surveillance system to the people you absolutely fu***ng don't trust.
That's the uncomfortable part.
And yes, I already know someone will say, "You're a photographer. Why don't you just take pictures and shut up about politics?"
Because art and protest have always been fu***ng intertwined. Photography isn't just pretty pictures of families standing in fields.
Photography has documented war, poverty, racism, injustice, political movements, cultural revolutions, government abuses and the parts of society we'd rather pretend don't exist.
Sometimes a photograph documents something.
Sometimes it asks a question.
Sometimes it pi**es people off.
And sometimes the best way to make people think about something serious is to make the entire thing so absurd that they can't ignore it.
So that's what I did.
I had an adult woman have a picnic in front of a surveillance camera while dressed like an exaggerated caricature of innocence, surrounded by ridiculous props, with one question written across her underwear:
CAN I GO OUTSIDE, DADDY FLOCK?
Maybe you think it's stupid.
Maybe you think it's hilarious.
Maybe you think it's offensive.
Maybe you think I'm completely wrong about surveillance.
Good.
At least you're thinking about it.
Because that's the point.
When did being watched become so normal that we stopped asking whether we should be?
