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UK Photographers may be interested in this motion
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See http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=35375&SESSION=891
Other forums are asking people to ask their MP’s to sign up for this motion.
Personally I would love to see photographers making a stand against this sillyness. C’mon chaps.
Fintan
I wonder will any brave Irish Politician stand up and be counted?
Without the interception of brown paper envelopes of course :wink:
Maybe we could have a whip round for Bertie :twisted:
I didn’t think this sort of thing was an issue in Ireland? Barr maybe Dublin Airport and the American Embassy perhaps?
I think this is a grey area in Ireland too but the UK may be hyper sensitive given the circumstances. Our day will come too when this issue will arise so watch the outcome with interest.
Alan.
Expresbro wrote:
Maybe we could have a whip round for Bertie :twisted:
You missed your opportunity Robbie. He was in the cafe in the Botanical Gardens the other week when we wrapped up shooting. His Garda escort kept giving me the evil eye. It _might_ have been something I said :wink:
Well you do have a kind of dodgy look about ye Aidan…hehehe!!
I used to work beside his Drumcondra Clinic for years..so I’d know most of his drivers to see….wouldn’t wanna get on the wrong side of them for sure… :wink:
On a serious note, I have to applaud whoever is sponsoring this motion in the UK. I doubt any of our *ahem* hard working TD’s would be bothered asking their workers to type something up.
There’s definitely a growing feeling of lack of safety when it comes to public photography as mentioned in the bill. Our speaker at the last Dunamaise event talk about an awful incident where the cops detained him and a class for suspected paedophelia. Luckilly he knew his rights, had a mate who was a judge and had all sorts of documentation to prove he was running a street photography class. But imagine you’re just a hobbyist like us and this happens … nasty.
There’s even places I wouldn’t want to photograph now. I’d be wary about the houses of parliament in the UK. No way I’d do anything on the streets of NY. I’ve been in Virginia a few times and as a foreigner you have to be careful because every second building over there is either USAF or Navy. Don’t want to end up on a one-way trip to Cuba as a non-existing guest of the USA.
We read about horror stories of irate mothers in parks who go mental even if they just see a camera in the vicinity. This panic stricken attitude is a society problem – heck, parents don’t even let their children play outside any more. There’s just this unending suspicion and fear.
yup – Ive had so many dodgy looks for guys in Belfast, some of them I ended up packing up and moving on before they bring their mates back….
It’s this which leads to sneaking and hiding whilst taking pics – which only makes it worse as it looks like your doing something you shouldnt.
I decided a while back to be more blatant about it, and people don’t seem to react as much…
I’ve had a few minor incidents when security officers have tried to take my camera for photographing their building – they seem to lose interest when I phone a local police station and report them for theft.
That usually works. It is after all theft when takes your camera against your wishes . I have only had to do that twice in Ireland but half a dozen times in England.Thats what you get for paying security officers minimum wage.
I operate on the basis that if I can see it I can photograph it. (Except near schools & childrens playgrounds where Its understandable that parents have justifiable suspicion of anyone photographing their kids) I just don’t photograph kids at all.
Keith
From the reports I’ve seen, it seems to me that the vast majority of this silliness involves the rentacop “community support officers”. I wonder if we’re going to end up in the same hole when we have waves of our take on this, with their couple of hours training and freshly minted chip on their shoulder, roaming the streets?
Came across this report on the BBC website.
The Paranoia grows…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7351252.stm
Expresbro wrote:
Came across this report on the BBC website.
The Paranoia grows…
This one was reported in AP a couple of months ago. The thing that gets me is, if I actually was a bad guy and wanting to take photos of things from a surveillance perspective, I’d whip out an inconspicuous phone or compact and use that – I wouldn’t be running around with a big SLR. If I were a discerning bad guy with money to burn, I might shell out for a Leica.
The british cops have an ad campaign running at the moment encouraging people to report “people acting suspiciously with a camera”, so I’d guess it’s going to get worse before it gets better
One interesting thing is that this invasion of privacy is due to a terrorism act passed by the Blairies in 2000. What exactly were they hoping to prevent back then? Our home grown variant of people who blow things up had to all intents and purposes retired or donned the Armanis at that point, and there wasn’t yet the bogey man of anybody a bit off white to scare people.
John
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