Big Brother Britain

The subject of this week's picture set is big brother britain. There are more CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) cameras in the UK than throughout the whole of the rest of Western Europe. When they first appeared, their rationale was said to be the prevention of street crime. All well and good, but now they have multiplied in number and purpose far beyond anything imagined by George Orwell in "1984", his classic novel about a controlled society. Wherever you go nowadays, there are cameras watching for the slightest infringement of the rules. Speeding and parking, drinking and smoking, dropping litter and, of course, bombing. If only bombers were stopped by cameras. The trouble is that the average suicide bomber probably wants his ghastly final act preserved on film. Big Brother may be all-seeing, but all too often he's also useless.

Last week's pictures featured London's St James's district

Last week's pictures came from a recent (February 2007) walk around st james's, an urbane and exceptionally well-heeled slice of Central London. Mayfair may be as grand, but its streets always seem empty of life. Belgravia is just a housing estate for the very rich. St James's, by contrast, mixes discretion and raffishness, both historic and contemporary. Its clubs, shops and galleries are honeypots for old money, new money and, though it would doubtless be silkily denied, funny money. Walk around St James's and you'll never know what goes on behind those elegant doorways. The deals struck and the pleasures enjoyed are not and never will be for public inspection. But the buildings are fantastic, and you can still get a decent bacon sandwich from the cheap cafe in Crown Passage.

Other recent pictures of the week

A fortnight ago the pictures were about ducks.  No special reason, even if (tangentially) the news has recently been all about turkeys. At least ducks, so far, have not been so comprehensively fucked up by the food industry as turkeys and chickens. A quack, nowadays, is a lot safer than a gobble.

The picture feature three weeks ago celebrated the continuing vitality of individual retailing in at least one small part of England - Brighton's North Laine district. North Laine shop art shows how signs, murals and sculptures liven up streets that still - at least for the time being - avoid the dead hand of chain store blandness. All the pictures were taken in February 2007.

There's been a lot of comment recently about the amazing growth of coffee shops. If you stand in London's Regent Street, apparently, you now have 166 branches of Starbucks within a five-mile radius. That chain only opened its first outlet here in 1998, but has been so successful it is annually adding 50 new prime locations where you can drink its over-priced and insipid lattes. People must like these places, though the demographics suggest they are not visited by either the poor or the old. The trouble is that the rise of Starbucks (and the other corporate coffee chains) means the closure of old-fashioned cafes that have for years served their local communities less glamorously but much cheaper. The picture set four weeks ago focused on the disappearing world of caffs and cafes. They are about life not lifestyle and I suppose, sadly, that's why they are doomed.

About this site and picture library

There are now over 48000 images in the library and they can all be keyword searched from the picture search page. New or updated subjects include CCTV cameras, St James's in London, ducks, shop decoration, cafes, horses and cows. The site has several ways to help make relevant and fruitful searches, including index pages for both subjects and events & places.  There is also a useful search guide and information page.

A good showcase of the type and range of photography available can be explored in the pictures of the week series. Published on the site since December 2001, this now totals more than 2500 images. Every week there is a set of ten pictures about a particular place, event or theme. Almost all the library's pictures are available for personal or commercial reproduction. Digital files can be delivered by email or CD, prices start from as little as £8 and there is further information on the prices and terms & conditions pages. You can also contact David Gray for quotations and availability for new photography commissions.