On a recent trip to London, it was difficult to overlook the city’s most common landmark: closed circuit TV cameras. With nearly 2 million security cameras, London is the most watched city in the world.
Security cameras are everywhere in London: On street corners, on trains, in public spaces and in private homes. To visitors, like myself, it all seems a bit too Orwellian. However, locals have become so accustomed to the cameras that they’ve become invisible. And, that’s the point according to Jeremy Bentham, an 18th Century English philosopher and social theorist.
Bentham invented the Panopticon, a prison where the behavior of every prisoner was managed by a continuous perception of unseen surveillance. The Panopticon prison is cheaper by design than other prisons because it requires fewer guards. Since the watchmen couldn’t be seen, they don’t need not be on duty at all times. CCTV is a modern day Panopticon.
Behind every Facebook profile is a story. Sometimes it is action-adventure, romance, or drama — and, sometimes, its a fantasy. No one know this better than New York photographer Yaniv ‘Nev’ Schulman who explored on this reality on film as it unfolded in his own life.