Photos

The actual scene: the observation booth used by Toronto Transit Authority staff to observe the platforms and other locations within the subway system. The cameras collect images from throughout the city and concentrate them in this glassed-in room, but (last time I asked) do not record them.

I've included this image in the category of architecture rather than transportation, using the term "architecture" in its broadest sense to mean our social as well as physical structures.

This form of covert observation is increasingly part of our lives, in Canada and around the world. This isn't a political harangue, just an observation of a social fact. Systems of this kind are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, sophisticated, and interconnected.

The degree to which this is good or bad depends on your point of view, and one's opinion may change depending on the situation in which one finds one's self. Most of us feel uneasy about being observed without knowing it, and at the same most people would agree that the widely dispersed tunnels, stairways, and passageways of a big-city subway system should have some form of security for safety's sake.

PP: curves, cropping. The coloured patch is part of the reflection of my camera lens because I had to shoot by holding the camera right up against the glass of the booth. At first I thought I should try to get rid of the reflection, but eventually decided I liked it.