Staring into the telescreen

Always watching...
London, ON
October 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Someone is always watching us, but unlike George Orwell's literary masterpiece, 1984, that compelled its citizens to cower in fear of the telescreen, we have choices. And control.

That phone in your hand is orders of magnitude more intrusive than anything Orwell ever wrote about. But a little time and attention to your app and security settings can put a serious dent in Big Tech's ability to sell you novelty socks you don't need.

Which partly explains why I felt the need to shoot this dystopian-looking scene outside the hospital after the docs inside had finished fixing up my smashed finger. I was looking for a little photographic therapy to distract myself when I came across this scene. At first I wasn't going to shoot it, because I felt the security camera messed up what would have otherwise been a compelling slice of upward-facing architectural geometry.

But something kept me standing there for a beat longer, smartphone in hand. Maybe the security camera WAS the story. Maybe the very act of standing beneath it was part of the moment. Perhaps somewhere deep inside the building, a security guard was hunched over a console of screens, watching me stare into the all-seeing lens. Maybe said security officer wasn't alone. What were they thinking? Would they send someone out to ask why I was taking pictures of a security camera?

So I shot hastily and left before I got into any more trouble than I was already in.

Next time I break my finger, I'm wearing a hat. It's a control thing.

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