A funny thing happened to me near the London Eye, where I was photographing people in the crowd enjoying the London Thames Festival. A security guard from the London Eye got in the frame and then demanded that I deleted the photo of him.
I asked, "Why?"
He said, "I don't know what you might use it for, and it’s the law of the land that if someone objects, you must delete it"
"That's not true lets call the police and ask them, and anyway what do you mean, what I might use it for?” I replied
He answered, "Well I do security, don't I"
I was perplexed.......
With no real reason, I refused.
He then called for backup on his little radio (which makes him feel like a cop or secret agent, I guess) and I was suddenly surrounded by a gang of aggressive security guards being rather threatening and talking into their own little radios. I argued for about 20 -25 mins with them, but when they pawed at my camera, I was worried that I'll end up loosing all the photos of the day and maybe hurt so I capitulated so I could escape.
What they didn't realise was I only deleted one of the photos. You see, during the argument I fire a shot right at him while he tried to block the camera. I prefer it to the boring crowd scene that he originally objected to.
A Strange thing though. There were many other photographers there standing around gawping at this scene, not one came to back me up that I was within my rights to take these pictures and nobody has a right to privacy in a public place.
Anyway, this has been another story of our freedom draining away. It seems to me that the terrorists have actually won.
09 Апрель 2010, 10:18 rumble_maso Great photo Mario. I've had problems like this too, but not so extreme. Good for you for standing up for your rights!
09 Апрель 2010, 22:07 Pit Van Meeffe
Rated RAW by the RAW Street Photography group
(comment & give RAW logo to 5 - 10 images
for every 1 post)with a radio and a gun everyone feels himself
like god...
10 Апрель 2010, 19:32 ashi well done mario, i agree your position
11 Апрель 2010, 00:03 ghb624 Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Photography is not a crime, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
11 Апрель 2010, 08:37 cjc4454 Yes, great job. Another victory for freedom of expression.
11 Апрель 2010, 19:02 Dowsett Designs Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Caught in the Act ~ of Flickr~ing!, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
11 Апрель 2010, 20:21 vladimir.kvasov This is great! What a great story you have with it too! Love it.
Теги: London Street Life BW Urban Street Photography Security Guard Facist Idiot Freedom Unbelievable Ridiculous Anti-terrorist Unintelligent A$%^hole londonist blackandwhite Street People England Candid digital photography BlancoeNero blanco y negro London Mario Mitsis Great Britain dpsstranger