Radar (en France)

Started in 2005 this project was an attempt to create a self portrait of the Radar camera used on the french highway system for photographing speeding motorists. During a residency at the Domaine de Kerguenec, Brittany the initial research and first attempt was carried out using my honda hybrid car fitted with a large mirror on the back of the car yet leaving the number plate clearly visible. After studying the angle of the camera and using the road markings plus video of previous traffic being photographed and triggering the flash it was possible to approximate the angle of the mirror on the car (with respect to the radar camera)so that it would record the radar equipment in the photograph made by the radar itself and thereby subsequently used in the letter notification issued along with the speeding fine.

Documentary photograph to check the angle of the mirror set up and First attempt using the Honda insight hybrid 2006. Although this was made during the pre brexit era when the British number plate recognition system would be shared with the French system no speeding fine was received so the next attempt used the car licence plate from the Director of the residency in France and a photocopy was made and attached to my car. This also failed to generate a speeding fine and photograph from the radar.

A number of years later while making an exhibition in Paris the lafayette foundation offered to help with the project and we commenced work using a much larger mirror fitted onto the rear end of their Renault master van as shown below. The mirror was attached to a metal framework that could be adjusted through several axis allowing a perfect fine tuning of the angle.

Documentary photograph made to check mirror alignment on the renault master van.

During the project the Director of Lafayette Foundation in Paris was shown some early video of the experiment and instructed the project to be immediately halted, due to the danger involved of driving with a large mirror on the back of a vehicle.

Ironically two weeks after the project had been cancelled the first speeding ticket was issued by the french police and forwarded to me (as i had been the responsible party at the time) however unfortunately the radar equipment is not visible in the photograph due to the mirror angle not being perfectly aligned. The document from the french police is attached below. Project to be continued at a future date.