A Polish friend of mine who lives in North London happens to like street photography. He's got a couple of cameras and isn't afraid to use them.
But maybe he should be. Recently, local constables insisted that he was breaking the law by taking photos of some shop exteriors sans permit.
My friend e-mailed me his account:
[One evening,] I decided to take some photographs in my local high street, the High Road in East Finchley, North London, N2. I set up my tripod, mounted a digicam on it and started taking photos of anything I found interesting. ...
Unfortunately, at one point, I placed my photo gear in front of a local Metropolitan Police Community Office and took photographs of a Chinese takeaway just as three officers were leaving the building.
The senior of the three bobbies asked if I had a permit for taking photographs.
- No, I said, I don't. Do I need one?
- Yes, you do, he said.
I was asked to switch my camera off, which I did promptly. I said that I thought that such a permit was required for taking photographs for commercial purposes only.
- No, you need a written permission from the Barnet Council for photographing any commercial objects in Barnet high street, unless you are a student of photography working on a project, I was told.
One more time I said I thought such a permit was necessary for commercial jobs, not for some sort of hobby thing. At this point, [another] officer, junior to the man taking my personal details like name, address, date of birth etc, said:
- You can photograph Harrods for example, or some other shops in Central London.
I said to her that I could not understand why photographing shops in Central London is fine without a permit, whereas photographing shops in North London does require one.
- It's fine in Central London because everybody does it over there, but nobody does in Finchley, which is raising the suspicion of local residents, she said.
Great logic, that, if you believe that terrorists are likely to leave London Bridge or Victoria Station alone and target a Chinese takeout in East Finchley instead.
Such orders — "Switch off that camera! Let me have your name and address!" — are barked at photographers thousands of times a day all over the world, no doubt, often by self-important little despots who are not above making up rules on the spot.
Thankfully, there are multiple ways to fight back, including using this wonderful website that invites you to upload pictures taken where photography is banned, so that others may thrill to the forbidden spaces you captured. From the 'About' page:
'Strictly no photography' is a photo-sharing site for photographs taken where you are not allowed to take them. From the inside of the Kremlin to Kensington palace, from art galleries to war zones. Here you can see everything you've ever wanted to see that you're not supposed to. There are pictures that range from the ordinary to the profound. Whatever the content or the quality though we think that each one stands as a little piece of art in itself, as a little expression of personal liberty.
And we could all use a little more of that.
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