© David Dunnico
In some ways, David Dunnico – a documentary photographer who photographs the documentation compiled by CCTV cameras on our streets – must be grateful he lives in Manchester.
Dunnico has galvanised the overseeing control room at Salford University and reviews of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, originally written more than 60 years ago and now kept at the city’s Working Class Movement Library, as part of this two-part exhibition dedicated to the escalation of surveillance (through black and white photos) and the changing-but-eternally-resonant nature of Orwell’s best known work.
The rarefied sound of some of the material covered in the literary strand is intriguing – among them, the changing covers of the novel often reflect the response of subsequent generations to the attentions of Big Brother, and there’s a screening of a rare adaptation of the story, made for American television in 1953 but never seen on British screens.
The topicality of the show is a measure of the book’s unwavering capacity to unnerve new audiences, but Dunnico’s take is original for its thoughtfulness and scope.
- Open 10am-4.45pm (1pm-5pm Saturday and Sunday). Admission free.
