ABSTRACT
On Saturday 12 November 2011, a BBC TV and YouTube-sponsored project entitled Britain in a Day asked the nation to "pick up a camera", to "record readers thoughts, hopes and aspirations", to create a "definitive self-portrait of the UK" and to leave behind "an amazing archive". Mass photography, as a form and a practice, is both familiar and elusive as a research subject. It has become a commonplace to observe that we live in an image-saturated world and one where visual penetrates all aspects of our public and private lives. Photography has been particularly implicated in this spread of imagery because of ready accessibility and booming growth of camera technology and products since the late nineteenth century. The practice of non-professional photographers - who have long made up by far the largest mass of producers and consumers of photography - has nonetheless suffered significant analytical neglect. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
