Archive for the 'Photographers’ Rights' Category

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Congress Weighs in on Photographers’ Rights

Published July 23, 2008 Photographers' Rights Leave a Comment
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Photo courtesy of Sanjay Suchak

It was six months in the making, but photographers now finally know that it’s perfectly legal to shoot in DC’s Union Station.

The Congressional Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management held a hearing today on Union Station, in part to address the issue of its improper and inconsistent enforcement of photography rules. 

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who chaired the hearing, called the situation “pathetic,” noting an incident last spring where a Union Station security officer tried to shut down an interview that the local Fox station was conducting with an Amtrak spokesperson.

Representatives from Amtrak and the company that manages Union Station, Jones Lang LaSalle, testified that it’s legal to take photos in the station and the high turnover of security staff was to blame for the inconsistencies.

Erin McCann, local photographer and member of DC Photo Rights, testified that she’s just looking for some answers. She’s been getting the runaround from management and security guards for six months, getting conflicting information from just about everyone. She said:

I’ve never been clear on why, exactly, a camera is considered threatening. In the aftermath of the 2005 transit bombings in London, for instance, officials appealed to the public for snapshots taken before and after the attacks in their search for clues. An open photography policy can be a security team’s best friend. It also liberates security employees from the task of investigating people like me as I take photographs in the most obvious way possible. With a 10-inch lens on my camera, there is no disguising what I am doing.

Rep. Norton asked for an outline of the station’s new photography policy that is mindful of first amendment rights and a plan to re-train security staff, within 30 and 60 days, respectively.

Read and watch Fox 5’s report here.

Read Erin McCann’s testimony here.

See Erin McCann’s photos of the hearing here.

Military Sends Embedded Photog Home

Published July 18, 2008 Photographers' Rights 11 Comments
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Photo courtesy of Zoriah

In another case of the government trying to sanitize war, photographer Zoriah Miller lost his embedded status when he published photos of dead soldiers on his blog.

From an article in PDN Online, the military claimed Zoriah published photos of casualties of a suicide bombing in the Iraqi province of  Anbar before the marines’ families were notified, which is against their rules. Zoriah, who goes by his first name professionally, says he did no such thing, publishing them on June 30, four days after the June 26 attack and after he’d heard the families were notified.

The military told him that his posting had “supplied the enemy with information on the effectiveness of attack.” To which Zoriah said that he didn’t provide any information the enemy didn’t already have access to from the New York Times, Reuters, et al. — and no soldier was identifiable from his photos. He says military officials even went so far as to try to get him blacklisted so that he’d be unable to ever embed again, although since then it’s been determined that he can keep his credentials.

A military spokesman claims he was sent home because  “the unit commander lost faith and confidence with Mr. Miller and his ability to remain within the ground rules.” 

Zoriah says:

“They embedded a war photographer, and when I took a photo of war, they disembedded me. It’s as if it’s okay to take pictures of them handing lollipops to kids on the street and providing medical care, but photographing the actual war is unacceptable.”

Article from PDN Online.

See Zoriah’s Anbar Province attack post here.

Dad Called Pervert, Told to Stop Snapping His Kids

Published July 17, 2008 Photographers' Rights Leave a Comment
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Photo by discarted

When do you know that our topsy-turvy PC world has gone too far? When a dad is told to stop taking photos of his own children at a fairgrounds.

Gary Clutchey was at the Wolverhampton Show in England — with his wife — taking photos of his two sons when a fair worker told him he had to stop, the Telegraph reported. He countered that he was only taking photos of his own children, but then another parent chimed in, saying he could be putting the pictures up on the internet and called him a pervert.

Clatchy’s wife said she was “annoyed, extremely upset and embarrassed,” noting that it’s a sad state of affairs when “every man with a camera enjoying a Sunday afternoon out in the park with his children is automatically assumed to be a pervert.”

Fairground officials say it’s policy to question anyone taking photos of the rides to determine if they have children there. When Clatchy asked police to weigh in, they said what he was doing was legal but “that’s the way society is these days.”

If that’s the case, society is depressingly paranoid, rigid and uptight.

Article from the Telegraph.

TOTH to Ben.

Photographer Wants His Fair Share

Published July 16, 2008 Photographers' Rights Leave a Comment
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By pointing this out, we will in effect be further annoying one Portland photographer, but here goes anyway. Rick Adams whipped out his camera just as a local cyclist jumped on the hood of a car to avoid being hit during a road rage incident. The story was widely picked up by every media outlet in town, and his footage was aired over and over again. Adams says he willingly gave the footage over to the the police with the intent of helping the cyclist, but he didn’t realize all these outlets would so flagrantly ignore his copyright ownership.

Now he’s annoyed and is willing to go to court to protect his rights. “I’m not looking to get rich off this, but as long as other people are making money off it, I think it’s only fair I should get some,” he said. (He did say he’s been contacted by some national news outlets which have been open to compensating him for the footage.)

Incidentally, there was a pretty horrific road rage incident in Los Angeles recently where two cyclists ended up in the hospital with serious injuries. Is this the latest trend? Stay tuned for the inevitable Primetime and/or Today Show story soon.

Article from The Portland Tribune.

Photojournalist Grapples with Famous Photo

Published July 16, 2008 Photographers' Rights , Photojournalism Leave a Comment
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In this article in Sunday’s Washington Post, former Army Times photographer Warren Zinn writes about learning that the subject of perhaps his most famous photo had killed himself. In 2003, Zinn took a photo of Army medic Joseph Dwyer carrying a wounded Iraqi boy that was hailed for its power and message of heroic sacrifice. Dwyer, 31, who was battling PTSD, died of an overdose on June 28. That lead Zinn, who is now attending law school in Miami, to do some soul-searching of his own. As he writes:  

Did this photo have anything to do with his death? News reports said he hated the celebrity that came with the picture. How much, I wondered, did that moment — just 1/250th of a second when three lives intersected on a river bank in Iraq — contribute to the burdens he’d brought home with him? If I’d never taken his picture, would he have ended up as he did? 

After four rotations in Afghanistan and Iraq, Zinn decided the risk wasn’t worth it anymore. He heard from Dwyer via email intermittently, the last one in 2004 saying, “Now looking back on it, it’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever done. I hope you feel the same about what you have done. I truly believe you played an important role in this war. You told everyone’s story.”

 

But Zinn seems circumspect about that role and his notoriety, writing: 

I’m a little embarrassed when people call the photo iconic or compare it with other famous photos. I was a photojournalist doing my job, just like hundreds of others in Iraq. There were countless pictures produced during the invasion that were better composed, better exposed and more compelling.

 Article from The Washington Post. 

Shooting in NYC Now More Clear-Cut

Published July 14, 2008 Photographers' Rights Leave a Comment

Photo by discarted

Today the Mayor’s office in New York City announced their new and improved rules governing filming activity in the city. Up until now, filmmakers and photographers have been shooting under rules that allowed for considerable harassment and scrutiny from law enforcement. And the city’s last effort, rules released last summer, were constricting to say the least, essentially requiring any group of two or more people taking photos on city property for more than 30 minutes to have a permit and insurance.

The new rules state, in part:

Permits will not be required for casual photographers, tourists, credentialed members of the media, or other members of the public who do not use vehicles or equipment or assert exclusive use of City property.

The NYC Photo Rights blog says:

Good News!!! Now if only the City of New York would agree to educate their police forces. That is really where the disconnect is. The city government can publish all the rules it wants but it means nothing if their police force continues to harass photographers. The track record of the NYPD in this respect is extremely poor.

Article from the AP via the International Herald Tribune.

Colorado Police Want to Outlaw Back Talk

Published July 14, 2008 Photographers' Rights Leave a Comment
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Photo by Discarted

A Colorado police chief wants to make it illegal for people to talk back to his officers. The Rocky Mountain News reports that Chief Paul Schultz of the Lafayette Police Department, a city located in the Boulder metropolitan area, has asked the City Council to include taunting and profanities as grounds for obstruction charges.

Presumably not realizing how ridiculous he sounded, Chief Schultz explained it this way:

“Officers have been subjected to very abusive language. This gives them a tool. Otherwise, they would just have to stand there and take that verbal abuse.”

Chief Schultz concedes that it would have to take “repeated, prolonged” verbal attacks to warrant arrest, but who’s to say where that line is?

Predictably the Boulder County Civil Liberties Union has taken issue with this, and two council members opposed the ordinance change citing its restriction of free speech. “I don’t think we need to be in the business of regulating speech in Lafayette,” councilman Alex Schatz said. 

To contact Chief Paul Schultz: pauls@cityoflafayette.com

Article from the Rocky Mountain News via Officer.com.

Getty to Stock Up Via Flickr

Published July 9, 2008 Photographers' Rights Leave a Comment
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Photo by flickr member let ‘er rip

In a deal announced yesterday, Getty can now search Flickr’s vast member archives for appealing images for their own use. Selected Flickr photographers would be invited to join a program and paid the same amount as Getty’s own contract photographers. (Photographers typically get between 30-40% of a $500-600 fee for exclusive rights.)

Jonathan Klein, co-founder of Getty, told the New York Times that this arrangement allows them to take advantage of Flickr’s strengths, which are a depth of images from around the world and covering every imaginable area. Plus, Klein said, they often have an “authenticity” that professional photography might not.

Article via the New York Times.

Oklahoma City Police Harass, Threaten Photog

Published July 9, 2008 Harassment , Photographers' Rights , Police Harassment 5 Comments
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NewsOn6.com reports that prep school teacher Chris Owens has filed a complaint against the Oklahoma City police and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol after being handcuffed and harassed for taking photos of a car crash scene. Officers told Owens he had to give them his film or he was going to jail.

Owens knew his rights though, and says he “quickly opened the scooter seat, dropped my camera in and locked it, and said ‘No, I won’t give it to you.'” After a heated exchange where the officer was demanding he delete the photos, one officer finally lost it, knocked Owens’ helmet off his head, handcuffed him and put him in a squad car. Which makes me wonder, what’s the big deal about photos of a car crash anyway? That has nothing to do with public security.

Owens, who says he doesn’t want anything more than an apology, asks, “Where’s the checks and balances? Who lets them run like unleashed dogs?” (But he is considering a lawsuit.)

You can send an email to Oklahoma City Police Chief William Sitty through the Public Information Office: ocpd.pio@okc.gov.

Article via NewsOn6.com.

They Do Not Mess Around in Greece

Published July 8, 2008 Assault , Harassment , Photographers' Rights , Photojournalism , Police Harassment 2 Comments
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You do not want to get caught taking unauthorized photos in Greece.

Olivier Jobard, an award-winning French photographer working for SIPA Press agency, was arrested and beaten on July 4 for taking photos of a port in the Greek town of Patras. He was working on a story about immigration and didn’t have a permit to photograph the port, which is required by Greek law, although he had been shooting the previous day – and had been stopped twice by guards and allowed to continue.

From the Reporters Without Borders release:

When Jobard was unable to produce a permit, the guard escorted him to a public toilet, pushed him inside, handcuffed him and hit him several times in the face. He then pulled out a knife, cut the strap of Jobard’s camera, threw the camera to the ground and smashed it with his foot.

Reporters Without Borders fully acknowledges Jobard’s need for a permit but condemns the use of violence. Agreed … anyone with half a brain would say it sounds excessive and unnecessary.

Jobard has filed a complaint against the police for assault and battery, meanwhile the Greek media has apparently come out against Jobard, criticizing him while only relaying the “official” (i.e., government) version of the story.

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