Shenzhen: Special Surveillance Zone is my photographic vision for Naomi Klein and her investigative reportage, first appeared as the political feature in May 2008 Rolling Stone Magazine, titled "China's All-Seeing Eye." The article takes a reflective look at China's becoming the largest homeland security market in the world - an estimated $33-billion industry - how it is thoughtfully fueled by multiple American giants like IBM, Honeywell and General Electric, and what this means to the ethics of both countries. With some 200,000 surveillance cameras already installed and 2 million more to come by 2010, Shenzhen, China's youngest city, chosen by Deng Xiaopeng as the first "Special Economic Zone" (SEZ) to experiment capitalism, will surpass London as the most watched city on earth. When I returned to the city for the first time in 3 years with Naomi, I could barely recognize this once neighbor of mine: the zone is special no more; it looks and feels just like any other wealthy, international, metropolitan hub. And other than the new high rises, new super malls, new branded chain stores, every couple blocks I saw something unexpectedly new: surveillance cameras, big, small, dome-shaped, cylindrical, sticking out, or blending in like lamp posts. Once you see it, you can't stop seeing it, like winning the Where's Waldo game. Is China becoming a high-tech police state capable of suppressing any dissidence? Is Corporate America exasperating the issue and at the same time profiting from it? Through these photographs I simply aim to articulate a sense of the "global middle ground" in Naomi's words, "the place where more and more countries are converging. China is becoming more like us in very visible ways... and we are becoming more like China in less visible ones..." My "Special Surveillance Zone" is special, because it doesn't just belong to Shenzhen, or New York, or London but a dystopia we might all share one day. LICENSE: Please visit ATLAS PRESS photo agency to license images in this gallery or view more related photos. PRINT: Please visit my IMAGE ARCHIVE to purchase fine art prints. See my COLLECTIONS here. Click here to read China's All-Seeing Eye, two Q&As with Naomi Klein and a photo slide show on rollingstone.com. |