aside from rights, photographers should also possess a sense of the situation. security guards, and thus every person, will no doubt vary in their level of trust and openess, and this probably varies from day to day. sure it’s great to sit there and explain your rights to someone in uniform, but to develop an instinct and feeling of the environment and the people within the surrounding…these attributes will pay off much more than what the government can give you. instead of instantly running to the big mirrored glass to take your reflection on some crowded public building with security guards pissed at the crying babies, the muggy weather, and the fact that they have to wear polyester without a gun, a photographer should at the very least act like a human being and understand the people and the mood in a given location. introduce yourself, put your camera down, do not look/act like you are just can’t wait to fire off a burst of 50 shots. the building, and your reflection, ain’t goin anywhere. if anything, it will give you a different, if not better perspective on the shoot anyway. it’s great that photographers are aware of their rights, don’t get me wrong. you can guys can fight that battle. i’ll be the one blending in, and looking forward to having a drink with the lackluster security guard when he’s off his shift. instinct and feeling, in my opinion, is the essence of street photography.
I would agree, there is a terrible lack of subtlety today in many street photographers. It is not our place to be in the way, though many are just that.
However, I have personally been harassed for simply carrying a camera in plain view that does not fit the description of the average point and shoot tourist equipment. I didn’t even have to fire a single frame. All I had to do was not look like a tourist.
The point is, what is everyone so afraid of? Millions of people take millions of photographs every day. Why aren’t the soccer moms getting picked on?
Sound silly? Why is it any different? They may be taking pictures of children they plan on kidnapping.
It goes back to understanding the situation…and in America’s case, 9/11 has only heightened the rampant paranoia in this country, which is constantly spurred by the media..and photographers need to assess this decade; take into consideration that driving home a fear of security is the backbone of the Bush administration, which in effect is beguiling citizens towards different and fearful perspectives. And among other things, the incisive yet unexpected results of photographs from Abu Graib..all this and the goings on in the past few years have made for a Neo-Consersative decade. I mean Robert Frank got arrested during the McCarthy era, so things haven’t really changed amid such times. If anything, this harassment against photographers has only multiplied in the sense of a larger population, a larger number of people with cameras on the street, and a magnified scrutiny on national security and privacy..and the snowball will keep rolling. All this, coupled with the inherent behind closed doors community mindset driven home by this nation’s Protestant attitude that United States has culminated, thus no one is trusting anyone, most of all photographers.
I can’t recall any personal experiences where I have been harassed in public places, and I’m sorry that you had the unfortunate luck of being so, but welcome to the majority. The answer to your question, what is everyone afraid of..is everything. Soccer moms aren’t getting picked on only because they dress the part. It’s like the airport where a guy with a beard wearing a keffiyeh will be racially profiled to be a terrorist. I mean it’s clear that the 4th and 5th amendment clearly hold a photographer’s right in public domain, but just having it in writing isn’t good enough to have people abide…it never was.
So what should harassed photographers do? One answer is go to the courts, or fight for one’s right in some and vehemently ask for what they deserve, or at the very least having the same level of photographic rights as soccer moms. Another answer is to recognize the current national mood of the United States, and to fly under the radar, recognizing that no matter how many photographers there are, there are always more people on the other side of the camera…and this may mean changing one’s approach to photography, taking on different subjects, and avoiding such confrontation altogether…. which may not be all that bad considering.
It’s not that the rights aren’t there for photographing in public places, it’s just that I’ve never been too keen on relying on the written law to bail you out.
June 10th, 2008 at 3:10 am
aside from rights, photographers should also possess a sense of the situation. security guards, and thus every person, will no doubt vary in their level of trust and openess, and this probably varies from day to day. sure it’s great to sit there and explain your rights to someone in uniform, but to develop an instinct and feeling of the environment and the people within the surrounding…these attributes will pay off much more than what the government can give you. instead of instantly running to the big mirrored glass to take your reflection on some crowded public building with security guards pissed at the crying babies, the muggy weather, and the fact that they have to wear polyester without a gun, a photographer should at the very least act like a human being and understand the people and the mood in a given location. introduce yourself, put your camera down, do not look/act like you are just can’t wait to fire off a burst of 50 shots. the building, and your reflection, ain’t goin anywhere. if anything, it will give you a different, if not better perspective on the shoot anyway. it’s great that photographers are aware of their rights, don’t get me wrong. you can guys can fight that battle. i’ll be the one blending in, and looking forward to having a drink with the lackluster security guard when he’s off his shift. instinct and feeling, in my opinion, is the essence of street photography.
June 11th, 2008 at 1:02 am
I would agree, there is a terrible lack of subtlety today in many street photographers. It is not our place to be in the way, though many are just that.
However, I have personally been harassed for simply carrying a camera in plain view that does not fit the description of the average point and shoot tourist equipment. I didn’t even have to fire a single frame. All I had to do was not look like a tourist.
The point is, what is everyone so afraid of? Millions of people take millions of photographs every day. Why aren’t the soccer moms getting picked on?
Sound silly? Why is it any different? They may be taking pictures of children they plan on kidnapping.
June 11th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
It goes back to understanding the situation…and in America’s case, 9/11 has only heightened the rampant paranoia in this country, which is constantly spurred by the media..and photographers need to assess this decade; take into consideration that driving home a fear of security is the backbone of the Bush administration, which in effect is beguiling citizens towards different and fearful perspectives. And among other things, the incisive yet unexpected results of photographs from Abu Graib..all this and the goings on in the past few years have made for a Neo-Consersative decade. I mean Robert Frank got arrested during the McCarthy era, so things haven’t really changed amid such times. If anything, this harassment against photographers has only multiplied in the sense of a larger population, a larger number of people with cameras on the street, and a magnified scrutiny on national security and privacy..and the snowball will keep rolling. All this, coupled with the inherent behind closed doors community mindset driven home by this nation’s Protestant attitude that United States has culminated, thus no one is trusting anyone, most of all photographers.
I can’t recall any personal experiences where I have been harassed in public places, and I’m sorry that you had the unfortunate luck of being so, but welcome to the majority. The answer to your question, what is everyone afraid of..is everything. Soccer moms aren’t getting picked on only because they dress the part. It’s like the airport where a guy with a beard wearing a keffiyeh will be racially profiled to be a terrorist. I mean it’s clear that the 4th and 5th amendment clearly hold a photographer’s right in public domain, but just having it in writing isn’t good enough to have people abide…it never was.
So what should harassed photographers do? One answer is go to the courts, or fight for one’s right in some and vehemently ask for what they deserve, or at the very least having the same level of photographic rights as soccer moms. Another answer is to recognize the current national mood of the United States, and to fly under the radar, recognizing that no matter how many photographers there are, there are always more people on the other side of the camera…and this may mean changing one’s approach to photography, taking on different subjects, and avoiding such confrontation altogether…. which may not be all that bad considering.
It’s not that the rights aren’t there for photographing in public places, it’s just that I’ve never been too keen on relying on the written law to bail you out.
August 25th, 2008 at 5:34 am
Thanks for the article