Security Matter (C) - A Portrait of Surveillance

Security Matter (C) - A Portrait of Surveillance is a photographic book that draws directly from the nearly 400 pages of my grandmother’s FBI file. My grandmother, Norma Spector, was surveilled between 1949 and 1978 for her involvement in the Communist Party, Federation of Greek Maritime Unions, Women Strike for Peace, Brooklyn Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, and the National Negro Congress. The “C” in “Security Matter C” stood for “communist.”

The book aims to illuminate and critique the government’s surveillance of people, its own citizens, advocating for equality and peace by appropriating pages directly from the file and recontextualizing them through the lens of family history. The left-hand pages feature the FBI’s portrait of my grandmother, and the right-hand pages feature images of my grandmother from our family archive. The book was designed to evoke a government file. Each spread is split in half, forcing the reader to fully engage the book with both hands. 

This project was made possible by the 2024 Eureka! & Penumbra Foundation Risograph Residency. Each copy was printed and bound by the artist.

Published 2025
Edition Size 100
Printing Risograph
Color Black Ink, Red Ink
Binding Chicago Screws
Paper Stock 80lb Mohawk Eggshell
Cover Stock 130lb Colorplan Bright Red
Size 7.375in x 10.25in x 0.5in
Pages 63

Design Hemza Hajyousif
Foreword Daniel Spector