A MINOR WRONGDOING (2011-) / Ongoing series about illegal prostitution.
With his work ”A Minor Wrongdoing” Malmström looks at the illegal prostitution below his living room window in the district of St. Georg, Hamburg. Under a new law from 2012, all kind of contact with prostitutes is forbidden and is heavily fined. Malmström is questioning the state’s surveillance on the private individuals. Neighbours are obliged to report suspicious persons and movements and as a result the prostitutes have to deal with the police controls, not the suitors. Malmström also assumes the voyeuristic position of control and observing out of a window. But the photographed and documented individuals get lost in the grain of the picture, only a shadow is visible in the dark night and the activities stay hidden and undefined. The distance of the portrayed is a confrontation of the border between the private and public space, and puts the mechanisms of surveillance, judgement and alleged directness into discussion.
Sophia Greiff / FotoDoks 2012 Exhibition Catalogue