Last week, Bryan Villarin was harassed while shooting photos of a building in downtown Los Angeles by the misinformed building securitytheatre guards. Rather than just slink away when threatened by the overgrown schoolyard bullies, he stood up for his right to shoot, and with the help of Discarted — another Los Angeles area photographer — set up a photographers rights demonstration in front of the building.
The photographers were well organized, shot photos and video, and presented the results of the excursion. Taking video was a nice touch, since it lets people see how ridiculous and unreasonable these securitytheatre guards really are.
This post is beginning to get some attention, which is a good thing. It has appeared on the LA Weekly Blog, and you can Digg it here.
Photography is not a crime. If you are in a public area, you have the right to take photographs of whatever you can see. Kudos to the photographers in Los Angeles who took the time to stand up for their — and all of our — rights as photographers.
This is the exterior of the San Francisco Museum of Art. Until recently, they had a strict no-photography policy. The museum recently changed this policy to read as follows:
Photography is not permitted in the galleries. Flash photography is permitted only with a handheld camera in the Atrium.
Apparently not all of the museum personnel got the memo. Yesterday, Thomas Hawk was kicked out of the museum by Simon Blint, the Director of Visitor Relations for the museum. Why was he kicked out? For taking a photo in the atrium of the museum.
This kind of behavior is inexcusable. This person is a horrible reflection on a place like SFMOMA, and it is my sincere hope that the people higher up in the management make him accountable for this action. There is no way this person should be allowed to hold the title “Director of Visitor Relations” after exhibiting this kind of flagrant disregard for museum policy toward a guest of the museum.
Carlos Miller, the photographer who was arrested in Miami for photographing police activity, finally has a trial date.
This is something worth keeping an eye on if you are interested in your rights as a photographer.