'You are not allowed to photograph this building'

[nickdemarco]

This morning, on the way to the darkroom to make some prints, Ripon and I both had to finish some films - many of you might know I have this Rangefinder Chronicles project and blog whereby I must take and upload a film rangefinder photograph every day for ever.

We stopped by Southwark tube and I set my tripod up with a Hassleblad Xpan on it and started shooting an office block with interesting architecture:
Palestra House, 197 Blackfriars Road.

Within second the security guard came out and said 'You an't take photographs here' I asked him why. He said it was private property. I was standing below the over hang of the building on what looks like the pavement, but it had different colour paving stones. So I picked up my tripod and put it one inch the other side of what was obviously the pavement and continued photographing.

Security guard continued to tell me I was 'not allowed" to phtograph the building. I told him I was in a public place and of course I could photograph it. This exchange carried on for a few minutes and I started to take some photographs with my Leica of the security guard. He said "don't take my photograph" - so I said, 'fine, get out of the way of my lens'. But he wouldn't move and kept telling me that it was not allowed to take photographs of the office.

He picked on the wrong guy. I'm a barrister as well, and I told me that of course I could photograph it, he had no legal entitlement to tell me otherwise and no right to continue to harass me. I suggested if he was so concerned he could as a policeman.

A couple of minutes later a policeman arrived and asked me what I was doing. I told him that although it was no business of his, I was obviously taking photographs of this building and for some strange reason the security guard believed I was not allowed to which was, of course, nonsense. The policeman established I was not on their property and after a brief discussion shrugged and walked off.

the the security man got some more security people down. One said, in a very official voice, that I was 'not allowed' to photograph the building. We had the same conversation, and when I asked on what grounds, I was told, because you are not allowed. Naturally, I told them they were mistaken, and continued to photograph.

The first security guy then called the police again. And a car, with siren blairing (!) soon pulled up. One police officer came up and asked me what I was doing. I asked the officer why she was so interested. She said they had been called to a disturbance and a 999 call had been made. Of course, I stood my ground again, told them it was nonsense and they should think about questioning the security guard for wasting police time.

Another officer suggested to me that the security guard might be worried because of the "terrorist climate" (that old chestnut, wheeled out when all else fails. I said, 'you look like a sensible man, officer, do you really believe a terrorist would come along in broad daylight with a tripod and a film camera and take photos, and when challenged instead of going away would suggest the security consult the police as they were mistaken. He accepted this was ridiculous and, in a nutshell, the police must have told the security guys to stop wasting everybody's time.

I had in fact taken all the photographs I wanted about 10 minutes before, but decided to stay simply to resolve this. A share this rather mundane story because I get increasingly irritated by people asserting that it is unlawful to take photographs. It's an interference in everyone's civil rights, and as a photographer it is tiresome. Of course it helps to know a little about about your rights as a photographer before entering an argument about this, but I strongly advocate every other photographer to stand up for their rights when they can. By doing so, you usually defeat those who think they can stop us photographing. By not doing so they achieve their aim.

Once I develop my film I shall see if I have any nice portraits of the Security Guard to upload on my Rangefinder Chronicles blog

Nick
http://rangefinderchronicles.blogspot.com/

[m_hauss]

Interesting story, Nick. Thanks for sharing it and congratulations for standing your ground!

[pinemikey]

Yup, it's all the same. To these meatheads the simple idea of photography on private versus public property has no hope of being formulated so they always take the easiest path...and that's to say no and it's not allowed. Not hired for their cranial development, these guys. I had the same thing happen to me in downtown Houston while my wife and I were strolling about looking for a place for lunch. I was snapping pics as I normally do and took one looking up at one of the skyscrapers, when out comes a genius and tells me "You're not allowed to take pictur...." I didn't let him finish and just ignored him. I mean walking on a public sidewalk, geez, how dumb ARE these guys?

Anyway here's the illegal shot:

[cbladon]

I'm tempted to go and take a few shots of the building myself now Nick just to see if he has learned his lesson!

[amoxtli]

Thanks for the story Nick, this sounds very familiar to me.

I carry copies of: "The Photographer’s Right: A Downloadable Flyer Explaining Your Rights When Stopped or Confronted for Photography" in my camera bag. In several cases it has made over eager security guards back down.

http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm

Happy Shooting,

Walter

[agroni]

A similar story happened to me in New York two years ago. I wanted to capture the Apple glass box on the 5th avenue. I had my Canon 40D with a Manfrotto tripod which made me look different from other tourists.



The moment i started to take photos a guard approached me and started arguing that it is prohibited to take pictures of the Apple Logo (you can see the silhouette of the guard on the photo, second columnd from the right). I started informing him that he is wrong and after 10minutes when he realised that i was right, he took another path. The security guard was from an adjacent building (the buidling on the same photo) which belongs to Bickel & Brewer (apparently a law firm). So he started threatening me that this time i was illegaly taking pictures of the building. I argued that i was not interested in capturing their building because i was photographing the apple store. But his peanut brain was giving him weak signals that even though the focus of my pics was the apple store, in the background you could still see details of the Bickel&Brewer building for example the entry, the lobby etc. He must have been the dummest ever guard in New York... Meanwhile there were several other people taking picture not of just the apple store but also of their stupid building...with and without flash, posing, smiling,...but the moron was concearned that i was a threat.
After another 10minutes of word fighting and no photos he called the police which also came on sirene. WHen the policeman approached us, he greated the guard by his name so apparently they new eachother and here is where i realised that now i would be facing two idiots instead of one.

Because that night was my last night in NY, i didn't want to go into conflict witht he american law especially the delicate situation after 9/11. I just thanked both of them for the conversation, packed my stuff and left the place. I didn't want to miss the flight the next day so i had to let them win, even though i was pissed
Generally when i was taking photos in New York, i was beeing observed by thousands of guards, i even had the feeling that i was on a binocular of a sniper pointing at me...!!! I still ask myself, how can some terrorist/thief/bad guy take survailance picture in front of the building. If you wanted to rob a bank would you take pictures in front of the guard???? Probably not, but this is how the security morons in NY think!!!

THe irony of this whole story is that during those 20 minutes of arguing i assume 100 pictures where taken from other people and they were not a threat to national security because they had cheaper cameras and no tripods. So based on the logical thinking of the US security guards, if you want to take pictures of security buildings...buy a cheap camera!!!!

cheers