N.A. (2011-2014)
For three years Doug Rickard immersed himself in YouTube films uploaded by Americans with a smartphone. As we gather clicks and likes, the line between private and public blurs, revealing the extent to which the digital image is highly loaded with subtext. A dark and dynamic portrait of America’s underbelly emerges, in which themes such as race, politics, technology, surveillance and the ever-present cameras on mobile phones predominate. The gaze of the voyeur fuses with that of the predator. For his series N.A. – an abbreviation of national anthem – Rickard, with the camera on a tripod in front of his screen, literally worked as a photographer hunting for disruptive moments in the world of YouTube’s collective consciousness.
