Photography Is Not Illegal

[kevin_standlee]

As you know, I am one of the people who has been hassled for taking photographs of trains by people who make up "secret laws" and say "9/11" whenever you ask what law you're violating when they tell you it's illegal to take pictures of trains.

Thanks to Adam Savage tweeting the link to the video below, in which six photographers (shadowed by six videographers) set up to take photographs (on public property like sidewalks) around different parts of London and to see what happened.

Note that in every case, private "security" types showed up and insisted that photography of their buildings (and of them personally) was prohibited, citing all sorts of made-up rules like declaring that photography of private property (even when the photographer is on public land) was illegal. In several cases, the police were summoned. I'm pleased that apparently the police actually did get the memo reminding them that photography isn't a crime, and none of the photographers were cited by the police, because the people weren't doing anything illegal.

I do wish they'd been able to include footage of the officers in question telling the "security" people, "Stop hassling people who aren't doing anything wrong." I'd love to see those "security" people's eyes bug out when they were told that they aren't allowed to make up new laws.

We need more people doing things like this and pushing back against the War on Photography.

Comments

[dsmoen.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this. I love doing street photography, though I don't do a lot of it.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

Yes, please.

I have found the following to be a powerful tool: http://www.krages.com/ThePhotographersRight.pdf

Also, let me provide a list of what kinds of pictures bad guys take. (It's not like the bad guys don't know . . .)

-- detail shots of perimeters and entrances to buildings, particularly in combination with wide shots that help identify the detail shots
-- detail shots of locks, door hardware, panic hardware, especially manufacturers and details of operation
-- special bonus if keys are photographed as a highly skilled expert can impression keys from a photograph of that key
-- detail shots of security, alarm and intrusion systems
-- detail shots of fire protection systems, water and gas valves, risers
-- thickness and composition of doors and windows
-- security measures including cameras, guard posts, angles of view
-- "street furniture" and/or lobby layouts
-- security and other access control turnstiles
-- logos, signs, patches and other unique identifiers
-- loading docks, trash docks, parking areas, entry and exit gates
-- vehicles and persons of interest as targets, particularly vehicles belonging to a site, vehicles ridden in or driven by executives or parked in special, restricted or enclosed parking areas; and employees who arrive particularly early or leave especially late

The vast majority of photographers have zero interest in the items above. I have to make a partial exception for livery and identifiers on aircraft, rolling stock, etc. when taken by enthusiasts.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Yeah, unfortunately, some of this detail is, as you note, the obsessive detail that train fans and modelers want to take.

[(Anonymous)]

Trufen can be distinguished by taking excessive photos of EVERYTHING.

The terrorist conducting preattack surveillance is concerned about getting caught, and thus only takes photos of value.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that the sane terrorist, assuming such a creature existed, would walk past once with a celphone running a constant webcam recording app. Also, for photographing the secret(?) outside of the building, it's too late; that's on Google Street View, one mouse click away from aerial photography.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

Not a good way to get quality photos. Just the jittering from walking would throw things off.

I encourage all tangos to make use of Google Street View. Please, throw me into that briar patch, Brer Rabbit. Please.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

Once I was playing with Google Maps while travelswithkuma shoulder surfed; one of us suggested the Kremlin as a place to look, and in a few moments we were looking down at Red Square, close enough to pick out individual cars. At one time many millions of dollars were spent to get that kind of coverage...