Oi! You! No pictures!
A few months ago, I ran a story on how the UK government was trying to restrict public photography. It seems as if they’re now playing the back-pedalling game in a big kind of way. Once the petition hit 60,000 signatures, the Prime Minister’s office issued a statement which can be summarised into ‘uh, no, we never intended these kinds of changes to be made’.
What I really want to know: Do you have any stories of instances where people tried to stop you from taking photos? Leave a comment!
It’s hard to tell if the guy who set up the petition was, in fact, petitioning the wrong people (the government wasn’t imposing restrictions, but private security firms might have been), or if the government have gone ‘whoopsie, a lot of people feel strongly about this, let’s try and save our skins’. Either way, the text of the statement is as follows:
Thank you for signing the petition on the Downing Street website calling for the Prime Minister to stop proposed restrictions on photography in public places.
This petition has already attracted over 60,000 signatures from people who obviously share your concern. Not surprisingly, the idea that the Government might be poised to restrict your ability to take photos has caused some puzzlement and even alarm.
We have therefore decided to respond to this petition before its closing date of August, in order to reassure people.
The Government appreciates that millions of people in this country enjoy photography. So we have checked carefully to see if any Government department was considering any proposal that might possibly lead to the sort of restrictions suggested by this petition. We have been assured this is not the case.
There may be cases where individual schools or other bodies believe it is necessary to have some restrictions on photography, for instance to protect children, but that would be a matter for local decisions.
So… Do you have any stories of when you were prevented from taking a photo by slightly over-zealous security personnel? What happened? What did they say? What did you say? Did you have to stop taking photos?
(Photo © iStockPhoto)
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This entry is © Haje Jan Kamps / Photocritic.org, and was posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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#1 - March 29th, 2007 at 14:40
Yes and no, depending on how you read the question. Yes, at museums and performance halls where they restrict photography. No, if I’m just out on the street or some other public area.
But I haven’t tried taking a photo of the Eiffel Tower lit at night, either…
#2 - March 29th, 2007 at 15:03
Once in Paris, I took a picture of a nice little doll sitting in a antique shop window in a back street somewhere. I wasn’t stopped, but the shop owner, an elderly woman, came out yelling at me in french. I always wondered why, I wasn’t bothering her, there was no costumers and she wasn’t in the shop, but in a back room so absolutely no people in the shoot. I was very amazed, I thought I was on clear ground, sometimes you know this is perhaps one of those shoots that could get you in trouble, this was totally unexpected. My girlfriend suggested that perhaps some of the items was stolen, anyone got a better theory?
#3 - March 29th, 2007 at 15:10
This didn’t happen in the UK, but still thought I’d share a time when I was asked to stop.
I wanted to take some pictures of some oil refineries here in Denver Colorado, so I was walking along the side of the road next to the barb-wire fence (I was just waiting for the sun to set so I could get some good light for the shots) when a security guard in a track drove by and stopped. He said that taking pictures of the oil refinery was prohibited because of the 9/11 attacks and that the only way I would be able to take a picture was to personally call the president of the factory (whoever owned SunCor). He asked to see the pictures I had taken, which I told him I hadn’t taken any yet. He said that if I absolutely had to take a picture for a class or something like that, I had to take it from one of two “designated” areas. I ended up going to the designated area which was about 1500 feet or so away from the fence of the plant. The pictures turned out fine, but I would have much rather gotten a closer picture where I could get a little bit more detail.
Still, I’m wondering, are oil refineries that big of a terrorist threat? Did he think I was going to take pictures so I could blow it up or something?
#4 - March 29th, 2007 at 15:46
It happened in London.
A friend and I were shooting some buildings near The City. I had a DSLR with a wide-angle lens in my hands, and my friend had his little compact digicam on a cheap tripod.
A guardian came out of the building and told my friend to stop and to erase the pictures he had taken. But the guardian didn’t tell me anything !
#5 - March 29th, 2007 at 16:47
I’ve been told to stop a number of times, but, unfortunately I was technically on private property at the time so there wasn’t much I could do… The most notorious time was when I was taking pictures of the White House. They didn’t stop me from taking pictures really, but they asked for my ID and social security number. Gee.. Why in the world would I be taking photos of the White House?
http://codepiranha.org/2006/11/11/why-are-you-taking-pictures-of-the-white-house/
#6 - March 29th, 2007 at 17:55
I was stopped and harassed by Sunnyvale Ca police for taking this picture: http://flickr.com/photos/pqbon/24404466/in/set-558184/
The cop held my and grilled me for about 20 minutes… I answered his questions but I wasn’t happy about it. He took my license and ran it. He asked me a bunch of questions and insisted that as a government contractor Northrop Grunman was a high security area. I pointed out that there was no signs prohibiting photography (there were signs warning that YOU may be under surveillance). At the time my wife was pregnant and it was after midnight and I was working at a new job. I really didn’t want to get arrested.
#7 - March 29th, 2007 at 18:04
I hope it’s OK to chime in on another comment.
Lee: Yes, oil refineries are a big target. The economic impact of a disabled refinery would be huge, especially with the psychological ceffects of people realizing our energy sources were at risk, coupled with the possible environmental impact.
If you’r on public land, they may not be able to enforce the “no picture” rule, but if you’re on private land, what they goes. I think it’s interesting (and a nice public relations touch) that they provide two designated areas for photography w/o going thru red tape. It’s not as good as being able to shoot from anywhere, but it’s better than a lot of restricted areas.
As for me: I’ve only been denied in a casino (family pic), but they were nice about it . The dealer said OK, but the pit boss came over and told me no. She was very polite; she aked if I wanted to take one more to make sure I had the shot.
#8 - March 29th, 2007 at 19:31
I have had a couple of episodes myself.
One in particular that sprung to mind was when I was paid by a shop in a shopping mall to take some photos for them. I took some photos inside of the shop, but then they wanted some photos of the outside of their own shop as well. The security guy showed up and took my camera off me by force, without any provocation from my side. This was a brand new camera (back in the day when the 20D was new), and I went apeshit. I ended up calling the police, and had the guy arrested for assault. His boss was really apologetic, though, so I dropped the charges. It was a rather weird situation though.
In the end, I did get the photos I needed. Which made me happy, and the client, too. It’s just never nice to have to include the police on jobs :)
- Haje
#9 - March 29th, 2007 at 20:45
While not getting stopped per se, I did have the county cops knock on my door for what they thought was me shooting photos of people (kids) sledding in public. Which, here in the USA is not illegal (as far as I know).
http://gmr2048.blogspot.com/2005/01/oh-goodie-guess-whos-new-neighborhood.html
What I was really shooting was a van with song lyrics spray painted on the side. There were kids nearby and I actually had to wait for them to walk out of the frame so I could get a decent shot of the van.
http://gmr2048.blogspot.com/2005/01/had-you-asked-me-yesterday-if-anybody.html
Unfortunately, when the cops showed up on my door, instead of proclaiming my rights to shoot photos of people in a public place, from a public place, I totally caved and invited them into my home to see the photos that I had taken and copied to my computer. I was so caught off-guard, I didn’t even think to ask what part of what I did was “illegal”
Oh, yeah, and a friend and I were totally run off from taking photos of the Ronald Reagan Building here in Washington DC, USA by an over zealous security tool. Again, we were on a public sidewalk taking photos of the outside of the building (and a nearby fountain). Man, I gotta start putting up a fight. At least verbal.
#10 - March 30th, 2007 at 12:43
I’ve been asked to stop shooting before, as have others in my country. I ranted about this already on my own blog, and I’m sure you’ll find a whole bunch of other rants elsewhere.
Anyway, I usually just ask for signs that explicitly say that photography is prohibited. Usually, that stumps the people asking me to stop. What I’d like though, is a document saying just why I shouldn’t stop.
#11 - March 30th, 2007 at 13:54
“It seems as if they’re now playing the back-pedalling game in a big kind of way”
Does it?
Given that the petition said: “We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Stop proposed restrictions regarding photography in public places,” but the guy who started the petition admitted on his own website that: “I have NOT said that a bill is in preparation, or that legislation is being prepared.” (I think he has subsequently changed his wording, but that’s a verbatim quote of what it used to say).
The original petition was somewhere between innaccurate and misleading. The Government’s response is hardly back-pedalling, it’s just pointing out that it’s impossible to stop: “proposed restrictions,” that have never been proposed.
#12 - March 30th, 2007 at 17:11
When I was recently in France I was stopped multiple times while trying to take photographs. The first was in Lyon at a street market I took a picture of a cheese stand and the woman got into the second frame and told me to stop. The second was in Avignon and there was a couch in a store window that I wanted to remember so I whipped out my lens and before I could frame the shot the store owner had has finger wagging dead middle of the shot. It seems that store owners have major issues with it or maybe it’s just that I had the dumb american look and they weren’t having any of it. Either way it didn’t stop me from trying the whole trip and it’s a good reason to learn how to shoot from the hip.
#13 - March 30th, 2007 at 17:21
I was shooting some photos of a burning apartment complex several years ago in B&W. The fire marshall came over and told me he’d have to confiscate my film, but would return it to me after they had looked it over. I gave him 2 rolls and my address, and never heard back from him. I inquired about the film a couple months later, only to be told that it had been destroyed or misplaced. Afterwards, I found out that he could only request my film, not demand it. I will not comply with that sort of nonsense again. If the police/fire/etc want my photos, I’ll happily send them duplicates, not the original negs. I’m sure what happened is they tried to process the Tmax400 as regular C-41 color film and destroyed it.
#14 - March 30th, 2007 at 22:30
I have not really had any problems in England, but on our holidays last year I had problems in Madrid and Lisboa. I took a couple of pictures in a supermarket in Lisboa and got told it was not allowed which is fair enough because it is private property. In the Prado in Madrid I was taking pictures (which IS allowed) and a grumpy steward got upset because I pointed my camera in her direction. She was downright nasty, I did not take any pictures of her, and even though I said I did not speak Spanish she kept shouting at me in Spanish.
I now live in Bergen, Norway and here I have absolutely no problems taking pictures in public, in fact, most norwegians own a camera themselves. It is great for street photography, there is paranoia and I hope nothing changes soon. :)
#15 - April 1st, 2007 at 14:07
My experience is that behaviour and camera type has a lot of influence on people’s reactions. I’m hardly the type that people don’t notice or are able to ignore, and they usually spot my camera. I tried my hand at street photography for a very short time using a SONY F828, and that didn’t work at all. The camera was way too imposing and had a huge lens. Several people asked me not to photograph them. When I used my old press digicam (Kodak DCS 520 (Canon EOS-1 house)) I would get strange looks, but people generally tended to think I had some buisness photographing them with that enormous expencive looking camera. However, the easiest camera I’ve used on the streets has been my old Ricoh 500GX rangefinder. People look at it at smile, thinking that this old camera is just a crappy point-and-shoot from the 70’s. I was doing shots for a street photography contest, and the only one who tried to stop me from shooting was a street vendor. Recurring theme? :) Next time, I’m just gonna tell people (not in the shot) who try to stop me to “Piss off! I’m working!” :D
#16 - April 1st, 2007 at 17:25
I’ve been questioned by police a few times, but mostly in third world countries. (Small time extortion) “Have you paid the fee?”
But this brought to mind an incident that got pretty big press especially here in Seattle.
http://www.brownequalsterrorist.com/
#17 - April 1st, 2007 at 17:38
Also this link:
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=18762
#18 - April 3rd, 2007 at 13:06
plenty of stories, but when i was taking this set of photos of the kid and her dad http://farm1.static.flickr.com/70/170424902_2ac7765f98_o.jpg
i had a lady of about 40ish come over to me and shout at me for taking photos of little girls and that i was disgusting and tried to snatch my camera off me, i gave her a swift punch to the wrist and told her to stop stealing from me. this began a great big fight on the train and the guard obviously..didn’t take my side and i got moved to another carriage, where after i had explained the situation and showed him my card and some evidence i was a photographer and i had been published he took my side and chucked her off at the next stop :)
#19 - April 3rd, 2007 at 13:07
note, she had nothing to do with this guy or his daughters, and he actually said, no seriously leave him (me) alone he’s not doing any harm.
#20 - April 5th, 2007 at 23:57
I once took a photo of a bum in downtown Seattle. He got up, chased after me for a block, and punched me in the face. Frankly, I was more worried about my lenses.
Was a lot of fun though. Police response time stinks, even in downtown Seattle morning.
#21 - April 10th, 2007 at 21:33
Last January, before the Lisboa Dakar 2007 rally. I was at the pre-race site taking photos, when I got near an entry point on the enclosed parking area. I ducked and put the camera down near to the floor, to get a photo like this one.
Suddenly, a security guard started calling me and told me it was not allowed to take photos of the bottom of the cars. If I wanted to take pictures, it had to be the whole car, not the bottom. He said it was because there were already photos of technical details going around on the internet and that was not ok.
It made me smile.
#22 - April 29th, 2007 at 09:05
Yep… Last year there was a big hoohah about banning photography at a riverside precinct in Melbourne called Southbank. It’s a promenade along the river that runs through the middle of the city. Anyway, there’s lots of structurally interesting buildings and it’s a biiiiig tourist spot. Unfortunately some knucklehead decided it would be a good idea to ban photography in and around the precinct. Apparently some security officer got suspicious of a person taking pictures of something that they (the security officer) thought wasn’t interesting enough (to him) to take a picture of and told the guy to stop under suspicion of…
Wait for it.
… Guess!
TERRORISM.
*sigh*
Yes, much of the property in that area is private but it’s a huge tourist magnet for people travelling through Melbourne and people have been taking photos there forever. A big protest by way of a huge group of people getting together to take pictures happened. The ban for most areas (except inside the buildings I believe) was lifted.
#23 - May 13th, 2007 at 16:40
Well, I’m lucky I’ve never been into any trouble for taking a photo. I must admit that I always am extra careful when I shoot. Maybe it’s because most everybody in my province knows about a famous case involving a photographer and street photography.
Only a single read (the article is very short) will show what can happen when things get really out of hand
http://www.montrealmirror.com/2005/080405/news1.html
Just be happy if your region is under British Common Law instead of the French Civil Code…
#24 - June 15th, 2007 at 23:40
There’s a very good document on photographers rights in the UK at http://www.sirimo.co.uk/ukpr.php. Also includes links to some information for people in the USA and Australia.
#25 - October 30th, 2007 at 03:41
It happened to me a couple of times…
The 1st, I was in Prague as a photography student from Falmouth collage of Arts, UK on a field trip. I remember taking shots in a buzzy square of City life and i just happened to zoom in on a police woman on a horse and snapped off a few shots of her. This was not the thing to do as i found out!. I than saw a police man coming towards me as i dropped my camera from my eye. I then shit myself and fled as quickly as i could, diapering down a back street into a antique shop and slammed my camera down on the table as it was an old Pentax K1000, so it blended in with the other items on display. I then looked at the shop keeper and shook my head. He seemed to understand what was going on and acted naturally. The police man ran passed the shop and my heart was thumping. I then thanked the shop keeper and left in the other direction.
The 2nd, In St Ives, UK on a job shooting shop fronts for a St Ives information web site. Half way through the job, came across this woman who says…
“Can i ask what you are taking photos for?”
Me- “yea, its for a St Ives ifo web site”
Her- “So you are not asking people if you can?”
Me- “No, i don’t need to”
Her- “i think you will find it is now against the law to take photos of people, with out them saying its ok”
Now this had me stumped, because i had heard from a friend that the government was going to pass somthing of that nature. I also remember signing the petition!.
Thank you so much for clearing this up for me!
I now know i can go out and shoot with confidence without all the taboo.
Cheers now
#26 - January 13th, 2008 at 00:18
This was happen in 2008,January,12Saturday,UK
I was stopped and harassed by UK polices because taking some pictures,I was walking on the Lewisham street and taking photos by my tiny camera,I took few photos of bus stop and the streets of the town.(It’s just the view of the town,I don’t think that’s really that big deal as those stupid cops said,I said they’re STUPID is because they stopped me on the steet and question me for 40minutes,took my passport,write down my ID,grilled me a bunch of questions,touched my whole body,ask me to take out my jacket on the freezing steet,took my bag,open everything in my bag!!After all this,after all they did this to just a tiny asian tourist girl walking on street,they just said with very rude and unpolitely to me,”YOU CAN GO NOW”)
honestly,I was shocked and scared at first,because at the beginning,there’s someone (doesn’t wear cop uniform)stopped me while I walking on the steet,after 2minutes,comes 2police cars and 4 UK polices came to me and start to grilled me pounch of questions,and later comes another police car and a bicycle policeman,DO I REALLY LOOKS THAT DANGEROUS?why they need to grill a girl with 8 UK cops?The only reason I can think is they are not only stupid,they don’t have brain.
After 40minutes wasting time,of course,there’s nothing the brainless UK cops can found from my hat,shoes,coat,jacket,and everything of my bag,I can understand they are doing their jobs,but I can’t understnad one thing is at least at the end,they know I’m innocent,I’m just a tourist girl,they own me a apology for harassing me on the steet,everyone was looking at my as I’m really a crimenal.Stupid English Cops.
I don’t want to say it,but that’s how I feel of this country,I’ll tell people when I back that English cops are really rude,unpolite,stupid,brainless,useless(they can send 4cops to do something more useful for people while they use 8cops grilled me on the steet).