Senior curator of photography at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Sandra Phillips, is the keynote speaker at Auckland Art Fair 2013. She speaks to Laura Howard about her passion for photography, her curatorial approach, and the expansion of the museum.

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Sandra Phillips has curated and collaborated on critically acclaimed exhibitions by some of the world’s leading photographers during her long tenure at SFMOMA. She curated the recent renowned exhibition, Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera Since 1870, which premiered at the Tate Modern in 2010 before returning to San Francisco in 2011. Exposed explores the use and cultural impact of photography made in public spaces, demonstrating the huge impact of cameras and camera technology.

Providing an insight into some of the images in Exposed, Phillips will discuss the way photography is associated with voyeurism and surveillance at her keynote presentation on 9 August. She will also take part in one of the Fair’s panel discussions, 'What photography sees?' on 8 August.

What’s your impression of New Zealand’s art scene?

My impression is of a wild and beautiful place but I have no idea what the art scene there is like - I am looking forward to seeing it!

What are you looking forward to at the Art Fair?

I would like to see what distinguishes photography in New Zealand.

Can you tell us about some of the projects you have been working on recently?

Well the project we have been consumed by recently is closing the museum [SFMOMA] to expand it. When we reopen in three years we will have three times the space for showing photographs, it’s enormous and a little scary!

Will SFMOMA be staging any offsite exhibitions during the closure period? If so, can you let us in on what you are planning for these, or for the new photography galleries?

Yes indeed, we are working with our sister institutions, giving them the opportunity to use our pictures in exhibitions they organize. There is a show currently up at the Contemporary Jewish Museum about pictures of faith in modern art - so they are including a Rothko, and some Minor White photographs, and other things from the collection. There are shows scheduled for the two and a half year period of closure.

What’s the most memorable exhibition you have seen, and what made it unforgettable for you?

That’s hard to tell, there are lots of them, and I am an inveterate looker at all kinds of art.  I would say the most important exhibition and book, because it was really both, was The Photographer’s Eye, in the early 1960s in New York, organized by John Szarkowski. I think the originality of that show was really inspiring.

How did you become a photography curator?

Well I wanted to be an artist, and I would look at photographs for fun - there was a new space at the Museum of Modern Art - I grew up in New York and I loved to hang around that place. I think what I saw there made me realize how interesting and unique the medium of photography was - I got hooked!

Can you tell us about your curatorial approach when putting together an exhibition?

Well that’s a broad question - I guess I find subjects or photographers that are compelling and try to represent them at their best.

How has your curatorial approach changed over the course of your career, and your long tenure at SFMOMA?

Well, I guess one show leads me to doing another show. For instance, when I came I wanted to examine the west of the United States, but not in a self-consciously aesthetic way - I wanted to see pictures of how the land was used, both in the 19th century and more recently - in this way I got to know the work of such figures as Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz. Now I want to see what the United States in general looks like, how we are particular - the real gift of photography.

What areas of the curatorial process do you find the most demanding? And rewarding?

Raising money. You want to make an excellent collection and you have to find people willing to help you. I have some amazing people.

Tell us about some of the work you have done, examining and exhibiting historical and contemporary photographs taken as evidence.

Well the show I described to you about land use is a kind of evidence about the land. I am also interested in how we think photographs are objective but they really are not. We think of police pictures as absolutes, but they are certainly susceptible to the modifications of the times.

Susan Sontag and other prominent photography commentators have discussed the photographer as voyeur. Can you tell us about your work in this area, and your recent exhibition presented in partnership with the Tate Modern, Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera Since 1870?

First of all I would like to take credit for the Tate show - is was called a partnership, but I had been working on the subject for ten years, then they hired a new curator and started a department and wanted to take my show, so it had to be a “partnership.” I am very interested (as you can now tell) in the fact that we have commonly held photography to be impartial, to be the “truth.” But in photography as in everyday life there is no absolute truth. See how difficult it is to read surveillance photographs? What do they really tell you? Did you ever see the film Blow-Up?

Yes - about the photographer who believes he may have witnessed a murder?

Yes indeed, and the closer he gets to that picture the more ambiguous and mysterious and ultimately unknowable the picture is.

The camera (and photographer) is now more adept at concealment than ever before. How does this impact contemporary photography, and the concept of privacy?

I would say that every person with an iPhone now can make photographs, and it has had an enormous impact on how we know the world. Look what it’s done to journalism.

How do you keep up-to-date with the art world outside of the major art centres?  Is this important?

I do what I can. I am only one person!

What are some new areas in which contemporary photographers are heading? 

I am actually very interested in what non-western, non-European photographers are doing. I think a lot of great work, for instance, is coming out of Africa now.

What role does the collector play to contemporary art today?

For me, collectors play a vital role in my ability to get work for the museum. Collectors, as well as people just interested in helping support a community effort, give me the funds to buy photographs.

While a private photography collection may be very different to a public museum’s collection, what do you see as some of the similarities and differences in their acquisition approaches?

I would say that a private collection is just that - a personal view of photography, essentially based on the particular taste of that collector.  Of course I am interested in acquiring pictures that I am very passionate about personally, but we also buy what we feel we need to tell the story of the medium.

What advice would you give to collectors of photography? 

To figure out your own direction and to get the best you can afford.

What do you love most about your job?

Looking at pictures.

What’s your big idea for 2013?

Learning more about pictures! I hope that doesn’t sound too easy, but I consider that my job.

• Auckland Art Fair 2013 will present 40 galleries and work by more than 180 artists from throughout New Zealand and Australia, all under one roof from 7-11 August.