Artist Statement

Parental Permissions Denied is a series of large-scale prints showing photographic downloads of children with siblings, friends or pets. The face of each child is obscured by a red dot. Using the photographic framework of family snapshots, the work explores the current anxiety collectively felt around image copyright and consensual photographic practice.

Digital technologies have expanded the opportunity to create and share photographs globally. As a consequence we cannot control the dissemination of our photographs. They escape beyond the controllable confines of the family snapshot album, the firm's annual report and the newspaper. They can appear on the internet and be relabelled to change their meaning.

Fraser’s intention therefore is to ask, “Does this need to be controlled? How do we decide who should demarcate this space? What are the consequences of our evolving fears and our ability to trust? And do the red dots in Parental Permissions Denied censure or protect?”

Artist Bio

Karen Fraser (b.1963) is a fine art photographer based in Nottingham, UK. She has been an active member of several artist-run organisations, and has exhibited nationally and internationally in painting, video, 16mm film and, most recently, photography.

Fraser first expanded her practice to include photography in 2005. In 2007 she was commissioned to screen her first still moving-image Eyes Flickr at Broadway Media Centre, Nottingham, which was then included in a programme of international urban screenings curated by Trampoline and toured to Australia and Brazil.

Fraser has been teaching art since 1990 and currently lectures on digital imagery at Nottingham Trent University.