Newswire Pix: Were it Not for the Culture of Surveillance

I doubt this random newswire photo would have enjoyed the same kind of distribution were it not for the present-day security state and the pervasiveness of security cameras. By the caption, sure, the photo is about a general strike in Calcutta in response to the attack on a student. Furtive as it is, though, enhanced by the hardware upper-right, it speaks as much or more to a surveillance aesthetic.

Source: MSNBC Week-in-Pictures.

(photo 1: Piyal Adhikary/EPA. caption: An Indian rickshaw driver seen at work during statewide general strike for 12 hours in Calcutta, India, Aug. 18, 2015. Congress advanced the general strike by two days in protest against the alleged lynching of a student in Sabang College in West Midnapore district of Bengal.)