Freedom of Photographic Expression
Every once in a while, you hear about some journalist who was jailed for speaking their minds. In fact, Josh Wolf, the San Franciscan blogger who allegedly shot video footage of an attack on a police officer, was jailed for failing to turn over that very video footage he claims he didn’t shoot.
It seems that this is one of many ways in which the Bush administration is slowly eroding the most basic rights of any blogger, photographer or journalist: freedom of expression, regardless of medium, whether it be online, on film, or on paper.
And the erosion is starting to move north of the 49th parallel. Yesterday evening (January 18th, 2007), I happened to be at a multiple-alarm blaze in North York, and was walking away with my pictures when I was verbally attacked, threatened with physical injury and, to top it all off, I had our Nikon D70S taken from my grasp by an individual who shall remain anonymous.
However, that was not the case. Oh no sir. In fact, quite the opposite happened. I was told that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the building. I simply explained that I am not committing a criminal offence, and that I am not impeding the foot traffic of any residents, police or fire department personnel and I continued to take photos. I also asked why I wasn’t allowed to take photos. No reason given as to why, but I fear I may have embarrassed him by saying that I had a right to photograph the building in question. I wasn’t going to sell the images to the media, in fact, I had no intention of making any money with the photos I took. They weren’t that great to begin with anyways, save for a few.
Having taken all the shots I wanted (and I was starting to get cold), I started to walk away when I was again harassed about not being allowed to take photos, and told to leave. I complied in order to avoid an embarrassing confrontation, and continued on my way back to my building. It was only a few moments later that I was verbally accosted and threatened with physical harm by this anonymous individual (whom I know, as I see him around my building frequently), and had my camera taken of me, with a promise that it would be returned tomorrow. Fortunately, the camera was returned to me not long after, however, it took 3 hours of dealing with 2 very professional police officers to secure the return of our camera.
All this for taking a few pictures of a building that had caught fire. Now, if I would have been told NOT to photograph the building, and would have been given a valid reason why I shouldn’t, I would have stopped immediately and walked away.
Shortly after I returned home with my undamaged equipment, I got to thinking about a conversation I had with someone else about creative expression and where the law fits into all of this.
It’s one thing to go out and take pictures of your surroundings, an interesting piece of architecture or a nice landscape. It’s something else completely to use your camera for illicit purposes, like child pornography or stalking someone. That will land you in some serious hot water with the local police department and could earn you a trip to a police station near you.
When is it right to say to someone that you are not allowed to take photos? And who can say it? Does an employee of a third party company have a right to say it to a resident of another building? Does anyone, besides the police, specifically dictate what you can and cannot take pictures of?
No, but even with this in mind, it’s happened (and continues to happen) quite frequently and the undocumented cases are far more numerous. Toronto is no exception to the rule, and several instances of these types of incidents have been well documented:
Photojunkie: No Cameras in Tim’s
Photojunkie: Don’t shoot off in Bellevue Park
Worksongs: Not Allowed
Since 9/11, our most basic freedoms have been slowly eroded by those who fear the power of the spoken word or the captured picture. The collection, publishing and circulation of this type of content is somewhat hard to control, and so, governments like the one in The United States of America, will instead single out and target people who are not afraid of such entities. These individuals might be considered fundamentalist or even anarchist (a label inappropriately given to Josh Wolf), because they believe that the freedom of speech and expression are basic freedoms that cannot be taken away from them. Those very freedoms are the basis for the Constitution in the USA, as well as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
So, what is the final word on photography? Well, I asked a police officer. He explained to me that as long as I am taking the pictures for the purposes of personal use or for commercial purposes, there’s no law against that. The law turns against you when:
- you take a picture of someone repeatedly
- you take a picture(s) of someone after they have told you not to
- you take a picture(s) of someone’s children after they have told you not to
- you follow someone home and take pictures of their home
As I was up pretty late due to the fact I was still pretty hopping mad about this whole situation, I did a bit of research, and came across the Photographer’s Rights Page. Even though the content is geared towards Americans, it’s still a good read. I would like to see something like put in place for Canadian photographers. Until this happens, Canadian photographers will continue to be treated in this manner.
To close, I am not certain what route I should take regarding this matter, but I do know one thing: When I am threatened with physical injury and I have my personal items taken from me without just cause, and in the manner my personal items were taken from me, I can and will take appropriate measures to ensure my safety and the safety of my personal items. As a photographer, and more importantly, as a person, I have that right. And I will exercise it.
Posted By: Justin Kozuch
Posted On: January 18th, 2007
Posted In: Rants
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idont know if i blogged about it, but recently i was at the job center in the UK and saw a number seven stuck to the side of a CRT moniter. I like prime numbers and i have a collection of photos of prime numbers. As such 7 is a mersenne prime, so i went to take a photo of it.
At this point a series of security agents pounced on me and told me that i had to leave the building and that they were going to confiscate my camara. By this point i was allredy heading towards a shutdown ( i have autism) and i was lucky to escape without being arrested.
This reminds me alot about the film. Children of Men, and i feel this s a very scary idication of where the goverments are heading.
^licks^
jammie & lion
[...] Last night a coworker and fellow blogger ran into a bit of a sticky situation. He photographed a burning building near his home and was threatened with bodily injury if he didn’t hand over his camera (Nikon D70s) by an employee of the heating and plumbing company that was doing work on the building. He’s written an entry about this run-in and his thoughts on photographic expression. [...]
[...] It seems that again we are threaten as photographers such as this case between Justin and the Burning Building. [...]
Taking photos from a public space is very different to taking pictures on private property. While some people, like Starbucks or your local job centre, may be mean and not let you take photographs on their property there’s not really any injustice in it.
But when people are stopped from or even accosted when they’re in public and doing nothing wrong the situation is horribly serious. I can’t believe that someone, especially someone who wasn’t a policeman, took your camera from you. That’s just disgusting. I would really like to know why someone gets so worked up, what is it about an amateur photographer shooting a burning building that makes someone act like that?
I’m glad that the police were at least reasonable and helpful in your case, though I must admit I would be very tempted to press charges against the guy who took the camera.
I’ve been walking around Toronto with a camera for three years now, pointing it at people and things, but always within reason, and maybe I’ve just been lucky that I’ve never been harassed or accused of anything. Maybe it’s just a matter of time.
I just don’t get what makes some people so mad at photographers who acting reasonably.
There’s another Toronto story here, http://toronto.photobloggers.org/blog/_archives/2005/1/10/237108.html
What happened to you is a terrible thing.
Our world has gone mad. Laws and regulations about what we can and can’t do are becoming alarmingly strict…democracy my arse.
We had a similar situation a couple of summers ago where the local council decided cameras were not allowed on Sdney’s famous Bondi Beach. Its insane.
Ive taken photos there since the law came into place and nobody did anything. I’d like to see them try though.
http://ambientlight.ca/laws.shtml
Lerren,
Interesting find, thank you for posting that. I will make sure to write an entry about that link and some other related business as well.
N/P - written by an old friend of mine after we were hassled at christie pitts park by a groundworker who told us that it was a toronto law that no photos could be taken in a park when there were children present in it. (needless to say, we didn’t buy it, but we also just decided not to push the issue right then.)
I wouldn’t have bought it either. It’s funny you mentioned the part about the children; unless you are told specifically by the child’s parents that you cannot take a picture of them specifically, if they end up in the picture out of coincidence (ie, taking a picture of a landscape with children in the distance), then you should be in the clear.
At least, that’s what the police told me after all this nonsense went down.
That is just crazy! I work as security for concerts during the summer and while I often tell people that I’m going to take their camera, I never actually do. I use it as scare tactic to stop them from taking pictures of the performer (legal stuff such as them making a profit on the performer’s image and other stuff like that) but you can’t stop someone from taking a photo in a public place of a public activity. And I do hope your camera was ok. I would have freaked if that was my camera. I don’t even let family touch my camera!
[...] the matter of my camera being stolen (and subsequently returned), the police have decided NOT to lay charges against the individual [...]