Photo Harassment

On second thought, maybe harassment is too strong a word. I was accosted and chided perhaps. But completely without provocation this morning on my way to work.

There I was in a half asleep daze at 34th St station. Why was I at 34th St station? Because in my half asleep haze I got on the A train instead of the B train on the El from City Hall; had to get off or else I'd miss my stop. So I was just standing there staring off into the nothingness that is 34th St station when a SEPTA cop walks up to me and says something. I was half asleep, so I didn't hear him so I turned to face him and said "What?" [paraphrased] He repeated, "You know you're not allowed to take pictures down here" while pointing to my camera hung across my body. I woke up pretty quickly after he said that. I said back that I wasn't taking photos and that I wasn't aware that there were any rules against taking photos down there. He replied that "Techinically, SEPTA is private property and that you need to contact the press/public relations department to get a permit to be able to shoot" to which I replied that I had read otherwise and that such a regulation has never been shown to me in print. His radio was squaking away and he repeated something and then walked away.

To the best of my knowledge, there are NO regulations as to whether or not one is allowed to take photos on SEPTA. I know that they tried to get some law on the books in NYC for the subways, but it never got that far after some incredible public outcry. People have been taking photos on trains for decades. It's part of the essence of street photography.

And we all know that this stupid "rule" is to "stop terrorism" - yeah, that fucking works. Riiiiight. Are people not allowed to take photos of the White House? How about Ground Zero? And what about the Liberty Bell? The Washington Monument? Those are all likely terrorist targets right? Or so we're lead to believe by Big Brother.

What a fucking crock of fucking bull fucking shit. Fuck off SEPTA. The 1/100 of a percent of people you "catch" taking photos of the dirty, dingy, disgusting subway system is doing a bang up job in keeping our streets safe. And other SEPTA cops have seen me taking photos and they have never had a problem with it. This guy made a judgement call on someone who wasn't breaking the "rule" [which, as far as I know, is non-existant] he was trying to enforce.

I'm not blaming the SEPTA cop for doing what he's been told to do, hey anyone can be a terrorist, right? But jeez. I don't see cops handing out tickets to every single person s/he sees jaywalking [unless you happen to be in Tempe, AZ where they do ticket every jaywalker they see].

And finally, I wasn't taking photos when the SEPTA cop approached me. I was standing there, half asleep, staring off into the tunnel. He presumed I was taking photos through my mind's eye I guess; as an artists should be doing I presume. But I wasn't. By that logic, he should've been going up to every single person down there who could have been taking photos with their mind's eye. Maybe they have a photographic memory? Encylopedia Brown sure did. A human eye sees better than a camera lens in most cases [certainly better than the lens I have on my D70 today] and can pull more detail than your average digital camera's sensor can take in. There may have been eight megapixel point and shoots with twelve time optical zoom cameras tucked in people's pockets. It seems that over 75% of cellphones come with cameras these days, those dirty digitally connected terrorists should all be numbered, no?

If he didn't start walking away, maybe I would've kept going back and forth with this guy. Demanded that he show me some kind of proof that taking photos is not allowed, especially if I was simply standing there not doing anything. It's not like this is something obviously illegal like killing someone, everyone knows that's wrong and illegal. Everytime I hear about people getting accosted about taking photos underground, it never involves any kind of proof, just a Big Brotherish mannerism that it's wrong for one BULLSHIT reason or another.

And while I'm at it, Fuck Bush. Fuck Cheney. Fuck Rumsfeld. Fuck Rice. Fuck Wolfowitz. Fuck Powell. Blah, blah, blah. Stupid bullshit.

Comments

[danielua]

Well, as far as I know, SEPTA stations sure as hell are NOT private property. They are owned by the City, and leased to SEPTA, a public agency. In no way, whatsoever, are they private. And they probably would need an actual law passed that says you cannot take pictures, even if they do (but prob don't) have an assinine rule.

[Big Al]

This same thing happened to a friend of mine in a MARTA rail station in Atlanta - he was taking a macrophoto of an amusing sign on a token vending machine (some threat there) and a cop accosted him somewhat aggressively. We responded with astonished incredulity, and he said it was for "security reasons". He had no answer for how taking a photo of a 3 square inch sign that said "This is not a change machine" would compromise security."

In our non-reality based post 9/11 world, common sense and cause/effect doesn't mean much.

[Davey D]

Albert, stop endangering us with your photo-terrorism! While you so recklessly scan our subways with your "mind's eye" you make us all sitting ducks for Osama Bin Laden. Relinquishing your Constituional rights is a small price to pay for freedom.

P.S. Why do you hate America?

[steve]

The feds threatened to take my memory card when they 'caught' me photographing some wall frescos on the 30th st. post office. I guess I was compromising national security by taking pictures of giant patriotic sculptures of bald eagles.

[Terrence Ryan]

Two or three years ago I was recording a student film at 24th and Market Streets and I could see 30th street station in the background. I was stopped by a plainclothed SEPTA detective, questioned for a few minutes, and then told to tape elsewhere.

[Tony]

It's ironic that you weren't even TAKING pictures. Sheesh. Harassment stories come up on the streetphoto list from time to time, and attorney Bert Krages seems to be the expert on such matters. Check out "The Photographer's Right" http://www.krages.com/bpkphoto.htm