IN THE MAGAZINE

STATE-SPONSORED VOYEURISM

Photography from the Czechoslovakian Security Services Archive

We will probably never know the proper names of some of our favorite photographers of the last century. You see, these people were not working for the sake of artistic glory. Instead, they served a totalitarian state apparatus that was not at all unlike the cheerful government in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. And so what follows, dear comrades, are surveillance photographs taken by the Communist secret police in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 80s.

They were spying full-time on average citizens, hoping to catch them in a situation that could lead to a swift arrest and a lengthy incarceration in some dank, hidden cell. With their cameras secreted in a suitcase or under a coat, the agents had no idea what was being captured while they were taking these pictures. Their negatives, in which one finds brilliant snatches of street life from a time that few outsiders were able to see, are full of unexpected gems. Total art from a bunch of Communist lackeys and thugs. Who would have thunk it?

These photographs and more are collected in the book Prague Through the Lens of the Secret Police, which was released earlier this year by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, Prague, www.ustrcr.cz.

Click to enlarge

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Comments

	vladimir, on Aug 20, 2009 wrote: all STB except the man in the coat... sitting (Walker Evans 1941 NYC).
	vladimir, on Aug 20, 2009 wrote: usually 3-4 photographers on the scene. ladies too. the camera (KGB Krasnogorsk 20mm or ROBOT 35mm 24x24 frame in the handbag.
Anonymous, on Aug 20, 2009 wrote: hidden in the handbags.
Anonymous, on Aug 5, 2009 wrote: were these hidden cameras or something? where were they hidden, inside trees or something?!
Anonymous, on Aug 5, 2009 wrote: secret police had a really boring job...
	tinkerer, on Aug 4, 2009 wrote: 70s and 80s. heh. with this kind of dress i would have guessed the 50s. except for the dude with the sweet stache. he’s definitely straight out of 1983.
Anonymous, on Jul 30, 2009 wrote: see this makes a lot more sense in that its not naked people or girls in bikinis this is more capturing real life and the surrounding environment.
Anonymous, on Jul 28, 2009 wrote: Believe it or not, spies don’t spend their days shacking up with beautiful women and drinking martinis. Most of them are fairly dorky.
	duck duck goose, on Jul 28, 2009 wrote: all this secret agent stuff and none of naked girls? what kind of secret agents are they?
Anonymous, on Jul 27, 2009 wrote: Scumnation says"But if they were that close wouldn’t he have heard the shutter click?"
Anonymous, on Jul 27, 2009 wrote: I really like the one of the man in the restaurant. You can see how the person that took it was hiding the camera behind their arm. So cool.
Anonymous, on Jul 23, 2009 wrote: So someone was focusing these manually? The depth of field is impressive and interesting for completely automatic cameras.
Anonymous, on Jul 21, 2009 wrote: Scumnation says "Where the fuck do you get the writers of these articles Vice- from Langley Virginia - Are you just a propaganda front for the CIA?"
Anonymous, on Jul 21, 2009 wrote: Scumnation says"have you not heard of CCTV?"
Anonymous, on Jul 20, 2009 wrote: whoever had the job of looking through all of this security footage probably really hated life
Anonymous, on Jul 20, 2009 wrote: @below what are you talking about people in london being photographed?
Anonymous, on Jul 17, 2009 wrote: Scumnation says" Everyone in London is photographed 300 times a day. This is fuck all in comparison, more vice out of date bullshit. Give us up to date stuff that we don’t know about.
Anonymous, on Jul 17, 2009 wrote: big brother is watching!! (even when your scratching your balls... ESPECIALLY when your scratching your balls)
Anonymous, on Jul 17, 2009 wrote: I wonder if the secret police ever when through all these photographs...i mean seriously, what did they think they were going to find?
	thedon, on Jul 16, 2009 wrote: theres an institute for the study of tolatarian regimes? that must be depressing as shit.
	dangerboy, on Jul 16, 2009 wrote: sometimes i get paranoid that people are following me around taking pictures of me
	lowbrow, on Jul 16, 2009 wrote: really? they took all these and didn’t catch anyone doing a damn thing? maybe that says something for their police force or their citizens but it doesn’t say much for the excitement of being a spy. i want more exploding cigars and dress shoe switchblades. these dudes didn’t get any scandanavian supermodel ass with this shit.
Anonymous, on Jul 16, 2009 wrote: They look like Holga photos.
Anonymous, on Jul 16, 2009 wrote: Scumnation says"What’s the problem our secret police have been doing that since the birth of photography." can you get some of them like Cliff getting shagged by rent boys. Prince Charles having a wank to photos of Camilla while Di lays naked on the bed. c’mon vice that’s the ones we really want to see. the one i really want to see is the punk Michael Fagan humpin’ the Queen when the butler walks in.
Anonymous, on Jul 15, 2009 wrote: something sketchy is definately going down in that last picture
Anonymous, on Jul 15, 2009 wrote: this is what the secret police wasted their time doing?
Anonymous, on Jul 13, 2009 wrote: why exactly are the security services and why are they archiving??
Anonymous, on Jul 13, 2009 wrote: sometimes i forget that someone, somewhere has laughed while i scratch my ass or pick my nose and rub it on my shoe when i think no one’s looking
Anonymous, on Jul 12, 2009 wrote: fuck that i’ll dangle my balls in front of a Czech’s face in public
	tables, on Jul 12, 2009 wrote: Remember these photos before you scratch your balls in public.. Beautiful photos
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