Over and over again, photographers on public property are told that it is illegal to take photographs. It is not illegal, in this country or in the UK, to take photographs on public space. Here is a good summary of US law from the ACLU.
For more information, you can check out this release from the Department of Homeland Security. Click the left-most button below to view full-screen.
(via Nothing To Do With Abroath)
This has become something of an annual guilty pleasure.
Just a little tidbit: the most photographed location in NYC (based on an analysis of geo-tagged online photos) is the 5th Avenue Apple store, which, but for the iconic glass cube at surface level, is entirely underground.
Here is Apple’s official website for the store.
The TSA is back in action in San Diego. Here is part of this story. Click here to read the full story.
This time the defendant, Sam Wolanyk says he was asked to pass through the 3-D x-ray machine. When Wolanyk refused, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel told him he would have to be patted down before he could pass through and board his airplane.
Wolanyk said he knew what was coming and took off his pants and shirt, leaving him in Calvin Klein bike undergarments.
“It was obvious that my underwear left nothing to the imagination,” he explained. “But that wasn’t enough for the TSA supervisor who was called to the scene and asked me to put my clothes on so I could be properly patted down.”
He was then arrested by local police on two misdemeanor charges, including video taping a screening location.
This combines two of the most annoying so-called security operations. First, the x-ray, grope approach of the TSA and laws that purport to prohibit photography of public locations. The latter is one way that the public can protect itself from official wrongdoers. And what is being filmed is a location that thousands of travelers view everyday. It is not a secret location in any way. Photography is not illegal. For example:
Regardless of what code he may have violated, TSA officials have stated in the past that it is not illegal to videotape the screening process, but it is illegal to videotape the actual computer screens, which would be anticlimatic to videotape anyway considering all the stripping and groping and fondling occurring in places where you are allowed to videotape.
And the TSA certainly photographs every member of the public that passes through its screening stations.
Back in July, I posted the story and video of a motorcyclist who recorded a video of his arrest for speeding, and the claim by state officials that such a recording was a violation of the state wiretap law.
Well, it turns out, the judge strongly disagreed:
“Those of us who are public officials and are entrusted with the power of the state are ultimately accountable to the public,” Circuit Court Judge Emory A. Plitt Jr. wrote. “When we exercise that power in a public forum, we should not expect our activity to be shielded from public scrutiny.”
***
“Under such circumstances, I cannot, by any stretch, conclude that the troopers had any reasonable expectation of privacy in their conversation with the defendant which society wold be prepared to recognize as reasonable.”
Government officials who object to the public’s right to film or photograph public actions of such officials seem blind to the irony of their position. In the US, there has been a constant movement since 9/11 toward more intrusive governmental surveillance of citizens. This includes everything from so-called “national security letters” to warrantless tracking of automobiles and cellphones to claims that all communications encryption must have a governmental backdoor to warrantless email wiretapping. Despite all these privacy attacks by the security apparatus of the state, the state objects to citizens quite properly reviewing and recording the actions of the state.
Gimme a break. Judge Plitt gets it absolutely right in his opinion.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
The Denver Post has put up a great collection of stunning color photos of the ravages of the Great Depression. Amazing.
I lived in LA for about 12 years. I never saw the city empty of humans, until this:
This is from a new book of photographs by Matt Logue. It looks fantastic. I am off to order.
Here is a very interesting post about the nature and reality of Google Street View as a strange new category of photography, including a number of images. Street View is both amazing and sometimes disturbing, as shown in the Street View photo below.
Eagle Point Dr, Sherwood, Pulaski, Arkansas
Here is an incredible collection of photographs of Detroit, taken over the past five years by seven amazing photographers, all within the City. They are moving, sad, beautiful and despairing. (h/t Bruce Sterling)
For more organized tours of Detroit, you might also be interested in The Fabulous Ruins of Ancient Detroit.
All they had to do was listen to Scott Kelby, photoshop expert. This guy is great and I highly recommend this book of his. (h/t kottke.org)