Photography, in practice

[pecunium]

I take pictures. I've done it for years. At times it's difficult (not the oddities of light and equipment, nor the cost and uncertainty [back in the day one had to do some mental figuring because the recorded image wasn't immediately available for review. One was right, or not] nor yet the search for places to present one's work), and some of those difficulties remain.

People don't like strangers taking pictures of them.

These days, "because everything has changed," there are a lot of people who don't like people taking pictures at all.

Last week sometime a guy was harassed in San Francisco Muni hassles shooter Up in Seattle, Wash a guy was more than just hassled Brown Equals Terrorist he had the police come to his house because a security guard had nervous thoughts about him.

Now shooting pictures is pretty straightforward. So long as one doesn't publish them, anyone can, pretty much, take pictures of anyone, anything and anyplace. People tell you they don't want you to take their pictures, but they can't forbid you. If you publish them they can sue (one of the difficulties is the issue of discretion vs. principle [I happen to dislike rewarding brutish behaviour, but the cost of replacing equipment if some lunkhead decides it's worth it to risk an assault and battery charge; and then the hassle of suing for the cost of my damaged gear, which said lunkhead may not have the money to replace, may cause me to stop shooting. A press pass will usually diffuse this, but I digress).

But nowadays people who don't like your pictures have trump cards. Taking pictures near a playground? They'll call the cops and say a pedophile has been around. Near the docks, boom you're a terrorist.

It isn't limited to the States. In Canada (Toronto, as I recall) a guy had some cops at a protest take his camera away and reformat the disk. It backfired, just a bit, because the guy had a spare flash-drive and had done a quick swap (this is one of the reasons I want the wireless widget for my digital).

So there is a file (pdf) which can be kept to refer to when some cop (because a private citizen isn't going to give a damn) tries to hassle you for taking pictures.

Photo Issues, a la Bert P. Krages.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

One of the nice things about cell phones with cameras is that people don't know if you are taking a picture or checking your text messages. The draw back is that now you can't go in some places with them. For instance, I was at an opinion maker screening of "the Chorus" and was forced to leave my phone with the theater manager !!!!! It is a great film by the way.
The other drawback of camera phones, at least mine, is they aren't that good, yet...
I am dreading the day when they will not let you take them into store dressing rooms. I use them to take a picture of what I try on sometimes, then I can send it to a friend or my mom and get a second opinion. This is especially helpful if it is for a special occasion, I also snoop shop with it ;-)

Susan in St. Paul

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

The MTA is going to ban photos on subways. Meanwhile, they had a devistating fire, possibly caused by a homeless person trying to keep warm, that screwed up the system and still has a line running at less than full capacity, but people taking photos could potentially be harmful.

So people with larger cameras who want to take nice artistic stuff can get stuffed, and people with bitty camera phones won't have a problem because who's gonna notice? Bleah.

[coupesetique.livejournal.com]

Right after Ian (Brown Equals Terrorist) got harrassed last year, there was much media hype and buzz around the area. The ACLU was really quick to jump in and defend him. People were really supportive of his cause.

Now it's a distant memory for most people. There's been no media followup to the story or anything.

I've kept up with his website over the last six months. Good to see that he's still campaigning against racial profiling both on a student and government level...

[ladymeow.livejournal.com]

I was on the subway in Boston recently taking some pictures of my friends and I was told by a worker to stop. I didn't understand at all, because what I was doing was totally harmless- I wasn't taking pictures of anybody else around. I took a few pictures of the signs because some of them were old and I liked their designs. The subway is a public place, and I should have the right to take pictures just as if I was above ground walking through Boston.

[tongodeon.livejournal.com]

You've missed the whole angle of copyrighted photos of public spaces:

Photographers of "Cloud Gate" in Chicago's Millenium Park will be sued for copyright infringement. (http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/12/179212)

The city of Paris has reposessed the Eiffel tower and it is now illegal to publish photos of the tower at night. (http://www.livejournal.com/users/matrushkaka/157846.html) (via matrushkaka)