The Freedom (?) To Take Pictures

Ah, the land of the free:

Some tourists, amateur photographers, even would-be filmmakers hoping to make it big on YouTube could soon be forced to obtain a city permit and $1 million in liability insurance before taking pictures or filming on city property, including sidewalks. New rules being considered by the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting would require any group of two or more people who want to use a camera in a single public location for more than a half hour to get a city permit and insurance.

A spokeswoman for the Film Office says not to worry:

"While the permitting scheme does not distinguish between commercial and other types of filming, we anticipate that these rules will have minimal, if any, impact on tourists and recreational photographers, including those that use tripods."

No impact, eh? A few years ago, when I was taking shots in Grand Central Terminal with a small digital SLR, a cop walked up and asked if I had a permit. No, I didn't, I said politely, and I wasn't aware I needed one. He told me the problem wasn't my picture-taking per se; it was that I was using a tripod. That, to the city, signifies a professional, and professionals need the mayor's permission to shoot, he claimed. If I just put the tripod away, I could proceed. If not, he added with a smile, "we've got a problem."

I had brought the tripod to be able to take photos with shutter times of two or three seconds, so that everything stationary would be sharp but the people rushing through would be ghostlike streaks. It's not really possible to shoot that kind of thing handheld. Well, maybe on one in ten shots, you'll get lucky. The closest I came was the photo below. Feh.

I can see how commercial film crews can be disruptive, and I have no problem with a permit requirement for them. I've happened upon commercial film shoots in New York many times. The production firm rolls in with big trucks full of equipment and smaller service vehicles for catering and the like. Gawkers and paparazzi gather. Klieg lights, and cranes, and camera dollies, and cables as thick as my arm are everywhere. Sometimes, a whole block has to be shut down for the duration of a shoot. For 2001's Vanilla Sky, the filmmakers famously persuaded City Hall to clear Times Square of all traffic for a few hours.

So, sure, go get a piece of paper before you attempt something like that.

But the lack of distinction between commercial crews and camera-toting tourists in the new guidelines is bizarre. It's also an invitation for cops to selectively enforce the rules according to their mood or what they've had for breakfast. See here, for instance.

Two years ago, Alicia Wagner Calzada, vice president of the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), addressed the problem, telling the Christian Science Monitor,

"Just because it's not law yet, doesn't mean there aren't people trying to enforce it."

Exactly.

And even when police officers know full well — or should — that pointing a lens in their direction is perfectly within citizens' rights, too, they'll be extra-motivated to tell you to stop, or else.

The more pushback there is against these kinds of willy-nilly, First Amendment-ducking rules, and against their inevitably random, biased enforcement, the better off we all will be. You may not think that protests make a difference, but here's proof that they do.

For now, taking pictures in public is one right we can still celebrate on the Fourth of July.

Comments

[Jeff the Poustman]

Read an interesting comment somewhere-- might have been on this site's reader comments, don't recall. Gist was that the Constitution was written long ago, and many changes have taken place in population, technology, etc. Therefore while the principles of liberty, separation of church & state, and so on, remain iconic and invaluable, the specifics of various amendments might well be something that needs some tuning. I'm not saying this is true or not, but it seems something worth at least thinking and talking about.

Automatic weapons, population density, imaging technology, privacy-invading possibilities, etc come to mind.

[Jozef]

Here in Atlanta, I was harassed for the past two years by cops when I was trying to take pictures of July 4 fireworks, also with a tripod (we don't have any permit rules here yet). As a result, this year I drove for an hour to a smaller city and hiked up a hill to watch the fireworks without any police around.

By the way, you may want to try something like the Monster Pod ( http://www.adorama.com/TPMP.html ) or The Pod Camera Platform ( http://www.adorama.com/TPTPY.html ). No cop would - hopefully - confuse it with a tripod.