Unseen

Your movements and actions are recorded in all of these situations and are stored and accessed by a select audience. Understandably, the UK has the highest density of close circuit cameras in Europe, as if you live in one of its cities, you will be videoed on 300 different surveillance systems a day.

Research shows that people are aware of the vast quantity of CCTV units and appreciate their influence over potential acts of crime and in the convictions of felines. But where does it end. How far can society take these cameras without penetrating our privacy to an uncomfortable level. A simple question, but one that every documentary photographer battles with repetitively.

In George Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty Four, he brings us to the extreme of privacy invasion with his predictions of how society in the eighties was going to be run by a faceless ‘Big Brother’ and his continuous monitoring and surveillance. Leaving the people of the time with no freedom. Suppressing their every action and means of expression.

Like many other key electronic inventions the CCTV camera has changed our social involvement dramatically. People are more inclined not to commit a crime if they feel they are been watched. Others feel the comfort knowing that there is someone watching and looking out for them.

Rather than using obvious images of located surveillance equipment to create a sense of Orwell’s predictions being the over powering presence CCTV combined with how people presently feel about CCTV, I decided to take an more abstract and unseen approach. What most people don’t realise is that “over 99.99%” to quote PC Brian Lowe of the Cardiff Police Surveillance Control Headquarters, of footage is unseen and never will be seen.

My images were taken with this in mind.
Firstly, I had to think would this make a difference to a criminal mind and secondly how would the public feel if they realised that really nobody was watching out for them. Yet again these cameras are rolling when there is even nobody in front of them.

The UNSEEN