No picture today, just a comment on something that disturbs me: On at least two separate photography podcasts recently, I’ve heard people talk about the rights of photographers to take pictures in public places, and the clash of photographers exercising that right with various authority figures (police, security guards etc.) harassing, threatening, arresting and assaulting them to prevent the taking of these pictures. These authority figures (either through ignorance of, or worse, disregard for the law) make up their own rules about what it possible in a public space. In Toronto, we only have to look back to the G20 debacle for this kind of misuse of power.
What disturbs me is when people say, yes you have the right to take a picture in a public space, but do you really want the confrontation, and wouldn’t it be better just to back off and go take pictures somewhere else? In the next breath, photographers who don’t back down but stand up for their rights are negatively characterized as confrontation junkies, who just want the thrill of getting in the face of “the man.”
When people suggest giving up their rights so meekly, they are insulting everyone who in the past fought and suffered for every right we take for granted. Would they have suggested to Rosa Parks that yes, she had the right to keep her seat on the bus, but wouldn’t it be simpler if she just gave up her seat? Would they have suggesting to Ghandi that while India deserved independence it would have been better to avoid confronting the soldiers and police (the ones with the guns).
There is a time and place for being polite, and when confronted by someone trying to take away your rights, going ballistic at the start is not normally the best way to go; but neither is meekly surrendering those rights. Sometimes manners aren’t enough and you have to get in someone’s face if those rights mean anything to you. Our rights are like gardens: constant attention is needed to prevent authoritarian weeds from growing and choking our rights out of existence.
As a photographer, there is no middle ground here; where do you stand?
My Third Eye 
Well, John, you touch on several topics here and I think I’ll stick to the topic of taking pictures for fear getting tangled in other issues. Taking photos in public places? No problem! In England, the police have surveillance cameras on the street 24 hours a day. However or not this goes down with the folks there, this is a sensitive issue to people everywhere who fear attacks or reprisals for what they do. Then there are those who fear being kidnapped, blackmailed, etc. They usually steer clear of being photographed. In some countries one is not legally permitted to photogaph children in public places. My opinion is simple. Work within the law. If someone wants to smash your camera for taking a picture of him where you are legally permitted to do so and publish it in a newspaper, then it’s time to get a longer lens and work from a greater distance because he’s defintely one fellow whose photo you want.
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