Having spent years developing contacts in the secretive global security industry, the British photographer Christopher Stewart travelled the world to document its agents at work. The resulting images are psychologically charged, with an intriguingly elusive narrative. They recall scenes from thrillers or gangster films, yet hint at contemporary issues of instability, security and surveillance. As a critic recently commented, they make us ‘hover, undecided, between the “observational” mode of documentary and the “point of view” shot of drama’.

This image shows a man looking out of a window through Venetian blinds. The muted table lamp and telephone suggest that the setting is a hotel room but there is no clue as to where in the world this might be. The viewer is kept in the dark as to what lies beyond the window, seeing only small shafts of light through the blinds. Our alienation from the scene is compounded further as we glimpse only the side of the agent’s face.