Archive Page 108

London: Take Your Stinking Cameras Elsewhere!

Published August 1, 2008 Security Guard Harassment , Street photography 1 Comment
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Cliche Crossfire

Photo by Brian Auer

Here’s a twist on the usual formula. Instead of being stopped by police while taking a photo, Mohammed Hanif writes in today’s Guardian about being stopped while getting his photo taken on a public street in London.

Hanif was posing for an author photo for a book he had just written when a security guard told them they had to leave. Ultimately they were booted from three other sites before finding a church where no one bothered them.

To London authorities, this type of activity amounts to a security risk and, accordingly, they’ve decided to make the whole process as laborious as possible. The nearly Byzantine rules in place require photographers to not only apply for a permit to shoot on public streets and wait up to a month for approval, but then they have to wear a radio-wave emitting tag while shooting. So they can be tracked.

Hanif asks:

Why would a potential terrorist (or people exhibiting suspect behaviour, as the Met likes to describe them in its anti-terror publicity) pose in front of an organic cosmetics stall and religiously follow the instructions of a white, female professional photographer who looked nothing if not an infidel?

But you see, it’s much easier to enact a very rigid, blanket law to outlaw any and all activity than evaluate cases on an individual basis and allow society to continue under some semblance of normalcy.

UPDATE: Thanks to Byron, who tells us the information in Hanif’s essay about the permit requirement and tracking device are not true and were actually part of an April Fool’s Day joke. Which means, thankfully, we are not living in Orwell’s 1984. Yet.

Article from The Guardian.

Photojournalist’s Snaps of Spill a Security Risk?

Published July 30, 2008 Photojournalism , Police Harassment Leave a Comment
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Photo by GODa

They do things differently in Texas, but in terms of photographers’ rights, they’re right in line with most states … in squashing them. Galveston County Daily News photographer Kevin M. Cox was taking photos of an oil leak at the Marathon Oil Co. when he was detained by police who questioned him for 45 minutes and asked to see his photos.

In an article in the Daily News, Cpl. Tom Robison defended the Texas City Police Department’s actions, saying it is policy to stop anyone photographing chemical plants so that police can assess what threat, if any, the photos pose to national security. Yes … but: What security risk could a photo possibly present when everything in it is visible to the naked eye from the street? (Cox’s vantage point.)

Robison said it’s not their policy to confiscate photos and they usually work nicely with the press. But they do detain news photographers — documenting news events — for 45 minutes. Go figure.

It’s that pesky constitution thing again. For all those Texans who are staunch defenders of the 2nd amendment that enables them to bear arms, well, they have to respect the 1st too.

Article via The Galveston County Daily News.

Downtown LA: Not Camera-Friendly

Published July 29, 2008 Photographers' Rights 11 Comments
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Photo by Bryan Villarin

Downtown LA continues to be a difficult place to take photos. We postedon Travis Puderbaugh’s experience at Grand and 3rd a few months back, and now comes this from photographer Bryan Villarin.

Last Thursday Bryan was taking photos of the TCW Tower on 8th and Figueroa when he was stopped by security. Security radioed in for bigger security, and the head guy came out to say Bryan had to stop because the building was “proprietary and is prohibited from being photographed.” I’m still puzzling over that usage of proprietary and I don’t think it really applies to buildings, but anyway, Bryan writes this on his blog:

I mentioned Google Maps and he said that it wasn’t as detailed because it’s a bird’s eye view. (Apparently, he hasn’t heard of Street View. I could see it from the street perfectly — without even being there!)

Bryan left willingly without further incident, but it does make one wonder what’s the big deal.

And, according to skyscraperpage.com, the TCW Tower won the Los Angeles Tall Building Structural Award for  Outstanding Design in 1990. Isn’t it a shame that an award-winning piece of architecture isn’t allowed to be photographed?

Update: Zoriah Miller Story Goes Far and Wide

Published July 26, 2008 Photographers' Rights 1 Comment
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Both the New York Times and the UK’s Guardian picked up photographer Zoriah Miller‘s story, which we posted on last week. Miller lost his embed status in Iraq after posting photos of bodies of marines killed in combat on his blog. (The marines were not identifiable.)

The New York Times piece says that, in contrast to the Vietnam war where the media had much access, five years in Iraq and over 4,000 US military deaths has produced only a handful of graphic images, which is absolutely incredible when you think about it.

From the New York Times:

“It is absolutely censorship,” Mr. Miller said. “I took pictures of something they didn’t like, and they removed me. Deciding what I can and cannot document, I don’t see a clearer definition of censorship.”

It’s nice to see this story finally getting the attention it deserves.

Have We Met…?

Published July 24, 2008 Documentary , Street photography Leave a Comment
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Photo by discarted

There are a lot of characters in Los Angeles, and a few places in particular that are magnets for the quirky, offbeat and strange. So I guess it’s no surprise that if you take photos in Venice or Hollywood you might find someone else has also taken a very similar shot of your subject. (There’s a flickr group called Mirrored dedicated to this concept.)

Photo by discarted

Case in point: this guy in Venice who apparently cruises the boardwalk in a wheelchair with his funny little dog perched on his shoulder. He seems to like attention, and he’s out there all the time.

Photo by eedgejr

But, even so, it is slightly stranger when one of your subjects pops up on a flickr member’s page in another city. Oree and Betty were regulars on Hollywood Boulevard, performing with their talking dolls for the passing tourists. Discarted spent a lot of time with them, mostly at their home, your classic fleabag motel room in Hollywood. Literally. After continued harassment from the police, Oree and Betty pulled up stakes and left Hollywood for what they hoped would be the sunnier, friendlier streets of San Diego.

And that’s where edwardmysers40 found them.

Photo by edwardmysers40

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.

You Too Can Be the Despised Paparazzi

Published July 21, 2008 Street photography Leave a Comment
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Photo by discarted

In LA, we have ample opportunities to take photos of famous people. On Sunday in fact we saw Vince Vaughn riding his bike with friends in Santa Monica. (Counter to the common refrain about celebrities, he’s much larger in person.)

In this article in the Guardian, Ravi Somaiya embarks on a mission to take paparazzi-worthy photos – that is to say, photos that can net large payouts from the celebrity weeklies. One fuzzy photo of Salmon Rushdie and a mangled shot of Kirsten Dunst later, Somaiya learned a few things.

Rob Bennett, photographer for the New York Times, gives this advice in reviewing Somaiya’s shots, which can actually be applied to all sorts of street photography:

These both show a fear of revealing yourself to the subject. You can see that you were scared of approaching them. Actually, the one of you and her has value. Citizen journalism like this works when the photographer engages with the subject.

Paparazzi need to have “rhino thick” skin, says Chris Doherty, owner of photo agency INF. That’s presumably to withstand the barrage of insults and expletives thrown your way along the line of “get a real job.” He also says you need multiple sources around town, i.e., doormen, valet parkers, waiters. These people tip you off to comings and goings that might not already be on the radar of the 800 or so other paparazzi on the prowl.

But this little hobby can prove to be very lucrative, as one amateur found out when he got around $32K for photos of Cameron Diaz surfing.
Or you could just hang out on Hollywood Boulevard and get one of hot gossip magnet Scott Adsit, star of “30 Rock” (above).

Article from The Guardian.

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.

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