Doug Rickard, founder of the American History x website, has become the latest to use Google Street View for a personal project in his book A New American Picture.
Rickard attempts to show us an unexpected view of the world's richest economy through the streets of its poorest cities. It shows the dark side of the American dream in areas such as Camden, New Jersey aka the US's poorest city.
All of the images show figures in dwarfed in their bleak environments - "These people are invisible [in the mainstream consciousness]," says Rickard.
"Even in the US, other people don't realise
how bad their conditions are."
The distorted pixalated effect of the images due to being photographed directly from google, according to Rickard, adds to the effect - giving a claustrophobic feel to the series.
He feels that the use of google street view is justified and stands up to his contemporaries "With digital imaging's mass proliferation of pictures, so much is about the editing - there are millions and millions of photographs in the world now, and increasingly what matters most is an ability to find a way through them."
http://www.dougrickard.com/
