"Topic that concerns me the most in recent years is law enforcement’s misconceptions regarding the legality of a person’s ability to photograph in a public space"

Via The Baltimore Sun

Public spaces are fair game for photographers – a right protected under the First Amendment as free speech. But in recent years that right has come under attack by law enforcement and officials, who are challenging the constraints of what can and cannot be filmed in a public space. Now, more than ever, photographers would be well-advised to learn their rights.

 

As the director of photography at The Baltimore Sun, I deal with legal issues concerning a number of topics, from copyright to privacy to trespassing to public access. First, let me state, I am not a lawyer nor have I ever played one on television. But, I am called upon often to give my opinion, or at times, state that The Sun should consult a real lawyer.

The one topic that concerns me the most in recent years is law enforcement’s misconceptions regarding the legality of a person’s ability to photograph in a public space. Photography in a public space is free speech protected under the First Amendment.

People believe that the press is granted special privileges because they have credentials. This is not the case. The press has no greater access then the average person in a public space, and certainly no less access. So a photographer standing in a crowd at a crime scene should not be singled out to move back unless everyone else is asked to do the same.

When confronting a photographer who is taking pictures in a public area such as a train station, police and other officials will often site the Patriot Act as forbidding photography. The Patriot Act does not forbid photography.

In May 2011, Baltimore Sun reporter Michael Dresser wrote about photographer Christopher Fussell, who was detained by three MTA police at a Baltimore City light rail stop while taking photographs.

Dresser wrote, “The right of photographers to take pictures in public places has been a point of contention virtually since the invention of the camera. But the disputes have become more frequent — and more contentious — since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which prompted police to challenge individuals who take photos or video of public infrastructure as potential security risks.”

“Civil libertarians and rights advocates say police have been given no new powers to curb photography since 9/11. In many cases, they say, police are making up laws and rules on the spot and issuing orders they have no right to give,” he added.

Continue reading full post here.


Related: "Literally every day, someone is being arrested for doing nothing more than taking a photograph in a public place"

World Humanitarian Day August 19

Via The United Nations

World Humanitarian Day
19 August

2012 Theme: "I Was Here"

World Humanitarian Day is a time to recognize those who face danger and adversity in order to help others. The day was designated by the General Assembly to coincide with the anniversary of the 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, which killed 22 UN staff.

Every day humanitarian aid workers help millions of people around the world, regardless of who they are and where they are. World Humanitarian Day is a global celebration of people helping people.


This year’s campaign "I Was Here" is about making your mark by doing something good, somewhere, for someone else.

To show your support for World Humanitarian Day visit

www.whd-iwashere.org

"Literally every day, someone is being arrested for doing nothing more than taking a photograph in a public place"

Today's must read, via The New York Times Lens Blog

Mickey H. Osterreicher is the general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association and edits the organization’s Advocacy Committee blog. He spoke with James Estrin. Their conversation has been edited.

"It’s not just news photographers who should be concerned with this. I think every citizen should be concerned. Tourists taking pictures are being told by police, security guards and sometimes other citizens, “Sorry, you can’t take a picture here.” When asked why, they say, “Well, don’t you remember 9/11?”
I remember it quite well, but what does that have do to with taking a picture in public? It seems like the war on terrorism has somehow morphed into an assault on photography.

Q.What’s caused this?

A. It’s been a perfect storm. There’s 9/11, and now photojournalists who traditionally worked for newspapers are losing their jobs and becoming freelancers who may not have the backing of their news organizations. You have Occupy Wall Street, where police didn’t want some of their actions to be photographed. And now everybody with a cellphone is capable of recording very high-quality images. And everyone has the ability to upload and share them almost instantly. There is no news cycle — it’s 24/7 with unlimited bandwidth."

Full post here.

Legal Issues

Photojournalism v. Law

A Lens blog guide to knowing one’s rights of photography.

• You Can Photograph That Federal Building »

• Cracking Down on Croparazzi »

• See Officer, I Can Too Take That Picture »

• ‘Step Away From the Camera!’ »

Related:

Why Is It So Hard to Get Press Credentials?


New York Times photographer arrested while covering arrest

Photographer's Rights: NYPD's Backwards Policy on Photography at Occupy Wall Street

 NYPD 'consistently violated basic rights' during Occupy protests – Report by NYU and Fordham law schools

“That the First Amendment right to gather news is . . . not one that inures solely to the benefit of the news media; rather, the public’s right of access to information is coextensive with that of the press"


Tracking Journalist Arrests at Occupy Protests Around the Country, Part Two


"You got that credential you’re wearing from us, and we can take it away from you.”

Must Read

Via John Edwin Mason

Margaret Bourke-White & the Photography of Segregation: Life Magazine, 1956

"Photographs are notoriously ornery critters. Their meanings are as slippery as eels, as impossible to nail down as Jell-O is to a wall. Photos mean different things to different viewers and different things in different contexts.

I'm absolutely certain that Margaret Bourke-White didn't want the photos that she made for Part III of Life magazine's 1956 series on racial segregation in the South -- "The Voices of the White South" -- to be a defense of white supremacy and an affront to African Americans. But that's exactly what they were."

Full post.

Art Law: Appropriation Art and Fair Use in the Digital Age

Via Photo Eye

Summer Lecture Series

PART THREE -
The REMIX Culture: Appropriation Art and Fair Use in the Digital Age
Wednesday, August 15, 2012 6:30-8:00 pm
photo-eye Gallery is located at 376-A Garcia Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501
photo-eye is pleased to invite you to the third in our Summer Lecture Series in collaboration with New Mexico Lawyers for the Arts, a nonprofit dedicated to providing artists and arts organizations with pro bono legal assistances and educational programming.

As issues of appropriation and remixing increasingly flood our culture, copyright infringement lawsuits are on the rise. In the final part of our Art Law series, a range of experts from across the legal, business and creative realms of art (an attorney, a dealer, an arts consultant and an appropriation artist), will discuss the creative methods and ideas associated with appropriation in art today.

Using the facts from the high profile Cariou vs Prince appropriation case, the panel will discuss the importance of appropriation and forms of visual referencing in our culture, the differences between transformative works and infringement and whether current copyright laws provide sufficient protection while preserving an artist's freedom to reference the work of others.

We hope you can join us this Wednesday evening. This event are free and open to the public on a first come, first served basis.

Read Melanie McWhorter's blog post on the lecture series on photo-eye Blog.

Watch the video of our first lecture Protecting your Rights as a Photographer by Efrain Padro here.

For more information contact Anne Kelly at 505-988-5159 x121 or anne@photoeye.com or Melanie McWhorter at 505-988-5159 x112 or melanie@photoeye.com

"in an age of information overload, now, more than ever, seeing is believing"

Seeing is believing: Human rights content in the age of social media

Via Storyful.blog


"Remember this famous image of a naked Vietnamese girl running in agony after being hit with napalm? Or how the plight of Kosovo refugees was documented in this image in 1999? These photographs were both captured by professional journalists, at times when media professionals played an integral role in documenting human rights abuses and bringing about change for those who weren’t being listened to. But with tightening budgets and technological changes altering the way news is being reported, nowadays it’s often largely up to the citizens themselves to let the world know what’s happening to them. Because in an age of information overload, now, more than ever, seeing is believing."


Full post here. (with video)


"For many reasons, there will always be a need for journalists on the ground, but the burden of human rights promotion rests now more than ever on the shoulders of the people who it most affects. Citizen journalists, working often in harrowing circumstances, can only do so much, however, and NGOs and news agencies must play their part in helping to transmit their message. They collate these citizen videos, verify sources and publicize the human rights violations they document using their established networks. Curation tools, outreach and collaboration play a vital part. The tools made available on and through social media are proving invaluable in the fight for human rights: it’s hard to deny atrocities when they are being documented and shared across a global community. Seeing is believing: what action we take once we witness the result is up to us."


Related: People Get Ready: The Struggle for Human Rights

Guest Blog: "To see, one has to look"

Kennedy to Kent State: Images of a Generation

Bernie Boston
American, 1933-2008
Flower Power, October 22, 1967

Via Worcester Art Museum
September 29, 2012-February 3, 2013


The Worcester Art Museum presents an exhibition of some of the most powerful American photographs of the 1960s, the images through which the country shared that dynamic period and by which it is remembered. All from the museum's permanent collection, these photographs were collected by Howard G. Davis, III to recall and reflect upon his memories of the era that had formed his personality. The images date from 1958 to 1975, and include the presidency and assassination of John F. Kennedy, as well as the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, the American space program and its mission to the moon, the antiwar movement and counterculture.
Join us for Kennedy to Kent State: Images of a Generation Opening Party on September 29, 2012,
8-11pm


Directions

Select Images

Photography is "ripe for exploration"

Via Wall Street Journal

 Jocelyn Phillips' "Collect Contemporary Photography," to be released by Thames & Hudson in February—provides a load of tips on how to build a collection, covering topics such as how to buy, where to look and how to care for one.

Ms. Phillips, who heads Bonhams's photography department in London, calls building a photography collection "a journey of discovering tastes and interests." When starting out, she advises new collectors to see as much work as possible at exhibitions, fairs, auctions and galleries before making a purchase.

Through research, she says: "You will start to gain a sense of the kind of work that appeals to you." Also, this is the way to familiarize yourself with essential knowledge, such as the number of prints in an edition, historical influences, printing techniques, photographic styles, pricing, hanging and framing, Ms. Phillips adds.

Photography is still an affordable collectors' area, particularly if you look for emerging photo artists, she says, adding that the young market is "ripe for exploration."

Ms. Phillips confided it was hard to select 40 photo artists to profile for her book from a wealth of global talent. In the case of the famous Düsseldorf Art Academy of German artists who studied under Bernd and Hilla Becher, including Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff and Candida Höfer, she mentions them all briefly but chose Mr. Struth (best known for his large images of people in museums) for the profile. Personally, I would have chosen Mr. Gursky, who I find to be the greatest of them all—a revolutionary in his monumental views that, for example, look at today's world through mass images to make people and consumer goods look like ants in life's big picture.

Selections from People Get Ready: The Struggle for Human Rights

Grey Villet: Sam Mali at gravesites, South Africa, 1985

South Africa, 1985, during the darkest days of apartheid. Nelson Mandela still languished in a cell on Robben Island. The burning issue to Americans was “disinvestment” – were American companies propping up the racist regime by doing business there? And how to tell that story in pictures? We flailed about – and then discovered a 38-year-old black man who seemed to embody many of the contradictions at work in South Africa. By day Sam Mali had an enviable job as foreman of a General Motors plant in Port Elizabeth, supervising a crew that included whites; by night he was a kaffir, required to carry an ID card, banned from areas marked ‘whites only’. He was forced to live with other blacks in a squalid township without power or running water.

 Sam Mali was profoundly torn - between his livelihood, and “the struggle.” He felt compelled to attend the funerals of activists killed by the police – but risked his job and his life by doing so. It was an act of courage or madness to allow himself to be photographed for the entire world to see. Grey Villet's essay on Sam Mali was duly published. When I returned to South Africa a few months later, I was abruptly summoned to the state capitol in Pretoria. There I was confronted by the furious deputy foreign minister of the ruling racist government. Redfaced, he brandished a copy of LIFE – waving it in the air. “These are lies,” he shouted, “and you know they are!”--Chris Whipple



Related: American Nazi Party Demonstration, District of Columbia Stadium,

Washington, DC, October 1, 1961

Photographer's Rights: NYPD's Backwards Policy on Photography at Occupy Wall Street



Via ACLU

By Naomi Gilens, Legal Administrative Assistant, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 12:32pm

The day after police evicted Occupy Wall Street protestors from Zuccotti Park last fall, I had some trouble deciphering exactly what had happened. Police had corralled journalists into a "press pen" removed from the park itself, and arrested at least ten people for attempting to take photos or video. When I visited Zuccotti during the following days and weeks to see for myself what was happening, I could only enter through a single access point, guarded by police officers who often filmed me as I walked in. Why could police arrest people for taking video footage of them, and then turn the cameras on those same people for engaging in lawful activity in a public space?

The answer, of course, is that they couldn't—not legally, at least. Under the First Amendment, Americans have the right to observe and record members of the police force in the public discharge of their duties. Conversely, the NYPD’s right to conduct photo and video surveillance on citizens engaging in lawful protest is limited, with very few exceptions, to circumstances in which “it reasonably appears that unlawful conduct is about to occur, is occurring, or has occurred.”

SPECIAL FEATURE > A Guide to Photographers' Rights

> Learn More: Filming and Photographing Police

As a report released today by the New York Civil Liberties Union starkly illustrates, though, these rules bear little relation to what is actually happening. Police continue to subject photographers to harassment, injury, and arrest. In July, an activist (and friend of mine) found that videotaping police stop and frisks had landed him on a “Wanted”-style police poster featuring his full name, photograph, and home address. The following week, a photographer attempting to document an arrest was flung violently over a stone bench several times, pinned down by a knee on the back of his neck, and arrested.

Even as they mistreat photographers, police are continuing to subject these same citizens to illegal surveillance. When recordings are made for a purpose other than to record unlawful activity, police are supposed to avoid “close-ups of participants.” Yet peaceful marches are regularly lined with NYPD officers, cameras in hand, zooming in on individual faces. Even more egregiously, there has been at least one case this summer of police filming a protestor receiving medical treatment by EMTs.
From the earliest days of the occupation at Zuccotti Park, a police watchtower carried out round-the-clock surveillance of the protesters below. Almost a full year after the Occupy movement began, the watchtower remains, clearly communicating that “even if you’re not doing anything wrong, we’re watching.”

Under our laws and the Constitution, you have the right to film police without making yourself a target, and to engage in political speech and assembly without police surveillance (see the ACLU’s related resources here). Follow NYCLU’s Facebook and Twitter feeds to learn when they post a new Free Speech Threat Assessment report, and keep an eye out for upcoming reports by the Protest and Assembly Rights Project on the police response to Occupy movements in Boston, Charlotte, Oakland, and San Francisco.

Learn more about photographers' rights: Sign up for breaking news alerts, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.

Related: Tracking Journalist Arrests at Occupy Protests Around the Country