Archive for the 'Photographers’ Rights' Category

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »

Photos From Obama’s “Barry” Days

Published July 13, 2009 Photographers' Rights Leave a Comment
Tags: , , , ,

6a00d8341cc90353ef0105367e6525970b
Photo by Lisa Jack

In 1980, in what can only be described as fortuitous, Occidental College undergrad Lisa Jack photographed a freshman named Barry Obama for a portrait project. It’s now nearly 30 years later, Barry is President of the United States Barack Obama, and the collection is being shown at M+B gallery in West Hollywood.

The exhibit – showing Obama in a fedora, smoking a cigarette, looking smooth – marks the first time the collection is on display (they were featured as part of Time Magazine’s 2008 “Person of the Year” issue). The gallery describes the set as taken during the future president’s soul-searching period. Or soulful period?

“Barack Obama: The Freshman” is at M+B through August 29.

LeBron James Nixes Photographer at Camp

Published July 11, 2009 Photographers' Rights , Photojournalism , Sports photography 4 Comments
Tags: , ,

img11934206
Photo by d_julien

Participants at LeBron James’ Nike basketball camp in Cleveland this week learned a little bit about media manipulation alongside ball handling skills. From The Quad blog in the New York Times comes a report that a freelance photographer’s footage was confiscated after he ran afoul of the star’s vanity.

Ryan Miller had been at the camp shooting video all day when he caught an Xavier sophomore dunking on James – what Miller calls the “highlight of the camp.” Miller says James’ team lost the subsequent game and then he saw the star call over a Nike official. The official then told Miller he couldn’t tape the professional players basically because the players are out of shape, and then he  took the video – the entire video of the day, mind you, that Miller was shooting as a freelancer for ESPNU. Not right. 

It’s fine to have a closed camp with a no photography policy. But to decide midway through the event, after what is so clearly an embarrassing moment for James, to then enact a policy and confiscate footage (and someone’s livelihood)? That’s not just bad PR, it’s ridiculous. Get over yourself.

Article from The New York Times

Annenberg Hosts Pictures of the Year

Published July 6, 2009 Photographers' Rights 1 Comment
Tags: , ,

C116_23_00231-2Photo by discarted

The Annenberg Space for Photography will debut its second exhibit in July, the prestigious annual photojournalism contest  “Pictures of the Year International.” The exhibit will feature over 80 prints and thousands of digital images from some of the world’s best documentary photographers.

For 65 years, the exhibit was held at my alma mater, the University of Missouri School of Journalism, and this will be the first year it’s held in Los Angeles.

The exhibit goes from July 11-November 2.

For more information, visit The Annenberg Space for Photography and Pictures of the Year International.

Is Ripping Off Flickr Photogs OK?

Published June 28, 2009 Photographers' Rights 4 Comments
Tags: , , ,

20-2 Image by discarted

This week, in the New York Times tech blog “Gadgetwise,” writer Sonia Zjawinski advised readers to download “practically free!” flickr images to decorate their walls.

Of all the artwork I have in my studio apartment (there isn’t a bare wall in the house), my Flickr finds get the most attention. Best of all, they were practically free! I use a Kodak ESP7 AIO printer to ink my finds on various sizes of photo paper and frame them in inexpensive frames found at Urban Outfitters or Ikea. The only thing I pay for is ink, paper and frames — peanuts, in my opinion. 

Now, I get it’s a neat interior design trick she’s stumbled upon. The fact that she’s printing it for public consumption – in the New York Times of all places! The pinnacle of journalistic integrity! – floors me. She’s basically endorsing theft.

Because of the firestorm of complaints, Zjawinski wrote an update to say she consulted a couple lawyers who (absolve her and) say it’s basically a grey area and OK as long as you ask permission. It’s a grey area alright, and you sure as hell can’t control what people are printing in the privacy of their homes. But for her to publish something like that with no research or forethought is so seriously irresponsible – and, sad to say it, goes to show how little respect there is for photographers’ rights that it didn’t even cross her mind to do so.

 Article via New York Times

Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough

Published June 27, 2009 Photographers' Rights Leave a Comment
Tags: , , ,

 mj media frenzy
The scene at Michael Jackson’s star on Hollywood Boulevard on Friday, the day after his death. Photo by cinemafia

UK School Bans Photography

Published June 23, 2009 Photographers' Rights Leave a Comment
Tags: , ,

sasha small
Photo by discarted

Has fear of photography gone too far? Officially, yes.

Last week a primary school in Devon in England prohibited parents from taking photos or videos at school events. The school cited concerns in child protection and image legislation, namely the Data Protection Act.

Thankfully, the country’s privacy watchdog has stepped in and told schools they are wrong to interpret the law this way. He suggested taking a “common sense approach,” which, come to think of it, would be nice way to approach life in general.

Articles via The Telegraph and The Daily Mail

Protestors Arrested for Questions, Photos

Published June 23, 2009 Photographers' Rights , Police Harassment , Protests Leave a Comment
Tags: , , , , ,

The Guardian posts this interesting video about two women, Emily Apple and Val Swain, who were arrested during an environmental protest in England last year. The women were both members of Fit Watch, a group that documents police harassment and surveillance of protesters, so it’s extremely ironic that they were singled out. Obvious yes, but also just ridiculous that the police wouldn’t think better of it.

Arrested for obstruction, Apple and Swain ultimately spent four days in jail, and then all charges were dropped. As the footage shows – shot by the police – the women weren’t doing more than asking  for badge numbers and taking photos. An investigation is now pending.

The treatment they received, both of them mothers and hardly threatening, really highlights how scary law enforcement’s abuse of authority can be. (Be sure to watch how four officers bind Swain’s ankles, thighs and hands and lift her into a van.)

Video via The Guardian

Watchdog Says UK Police Better Watch It

Published June 19, 2009 Photographers' Rights , Police Harassment 1 Comment
Tags: , ,

2584319546_6b1212ca4d
Photo by cloudy images

In a heartwarming development, England’s terror legislation watchdog has warned police that they should stop abusing anti-terrorism laws by criminalizing photography of the police. Further, Lord Carlile said in his annual report that officers who do this could face possible criminal and disciplinary prosecution. 

This strikes a major blow to English police who have used the powers accorded them under Section 58A of the Counter-Terrorism Act to their great benefit, harassing, detaining and roughing up photographers however they saw fit. 

In his report, Carlile wrote: 

It should be emphasised that photography of the police by the media or amateurs remains as legitimate as before, unless the photograph is likely to be of use to a terrorist. This is a high bar. It is inexcusable for police officers ever to use this provision to interfere with the rights of individuals to take photographs. The police must adjust to the undoubted fact that the scrutiny of them by members of the public is at least proportional to any increase in police powers – given the ubiquity of photograph and video enabled mobile phones.

It is interesting he acknowledged the ubiquity of photography, as we’ve long thought law enforcement agencies have been slow to recognize that their days of unchecked authority are coming to an end.

Article via Daily Mail

Officer Doesn’t Like Photograph of Misdeed

Published June 18, 2009 Photographers' Rights , Police Harassment 3 Comments
Tags: , , ,

IMG00061-20090617-1914-300x225
Photo by Terence Eden

We’ve heard how hostile those UK police are to photography, and  blogger Terence Eden found that out firsthand. Eden writes on his blog that he took a photo of a police van parked in a disabled bay – or handicapped space for us Americans – and was approached by an officer who wanted to know what he was doing. The officer explained she was there to respond to a call, which Eden accepted, but then she asked to delete his photo. Eden writes:

I asked her why she wanted the photo to be deleted, she told me that “in the current climate” the police had been asked to stop people from taking photos of sensitive buildings and of the police.

He told her that wasn’t the case. She wanted to take down his information. There was some  more back and forth. They resolved the matter amicably without any photos being deleted.

My guess would be that she didn’t want any proof of her transgression. Legitimate call or not, it still looks bad for the police to be taking a handicapped spot. I don’t know about in England, but here in the US there are loads of other illegal parking spots an officer could park in in a hurry and still not take up a handicap spot. (But that’s just conjecture on my part.)

At any rate, there is one thing I disagree with in Eden’s post: He advises uploading important photos as soon as possible (which may not always be possible in a confrontation, but okay), and he says if you’re asked to delete photos it may be worth it to comply since they can be recovered later.  Actually, deleting photos from your camera when there is no law on the books backing that up is just  foolish. That’s giving in, admitting guilt, relinquishing power and saying you were in the wrong and your private property isn’t yours and you’re fine with being bullied. I don’t recommend that at all.

Read the whole post at Terence Eden’s blog here.

Selective Outrage for Journalist Arrests

Published June 10, 2009 Photographers' Rights , Police Harassment 2 Comments
Tags: , , , , ,

I feel for the Current TV journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, that are being held in North Korea right now for illegally entering the country. They’ve been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor, and they must be scared to death. But journalists get arrested and convicted all over the world, and right here in the US – all the time.

Reporter Diane Bukowski was just fined $4,000 and sentenced to 200 hours of community service for doing her job in Detroit. Photojournalist Mike Anzaldi was arrested twice – and put in jail – for doing his job in Chicago. Democracy Now! host Amy Goldman was arrested at the Democratic National Convention in Minneapolis. The list goes on.

So why does this story provoke such outrage? A big part of it I’m sure is because one of the journalists is the sister of TV personality Lisa Ling. But the other side of it is that we like to act high and mighty and righteous, as if our country is so much more evolved that we’d never trample on the rights of a member of the press. It also doesn’t hurt that the offending country is much-hated, nuke-loving North Korea, one-third of the famed axis of evil. Implicitly we’re saying “What barbarians, those North Koreans!”, but the fact that most mainstream media outlets don’t cover these domestic incidents says a lot about us too.

Spam Blocked

1,139,436 spam blocked by Akismet