This film by ‘Shoot Experience’ looks at security guards working for organisations that try to impose unlawful restrictions on photographers standing on public land. Depicting the experiences of 6 photographers visiting various parts of London to see the current state of photographers’ rights. Of course if you see some odd looking character behaving in a suspicious manner then security intervention would have been quite appropriate, but when it is clear that nothing other than lawful photography from a public space is all that is going on then this must be deemed unacceptable.
All were instructed to keep to public land and photograph the area as they would on a normal day, aimed to test the policing of public and private space by private security firms and their reaction to photographers. The result? Every one of the photographers was confronted at least once, and in three cases the police were called.
I would have preferred it if the videographer in one scene had not continued to film when requested 3 times not to, as this action alone can lessen the cause.
Tags: access rights, intervention, photographer rights, policing london, policing public spaces, private land, private security, public land, security confrontation, shoot experience, unlawful restrictions
Two weeks ago I was in a Brighton public park – two police vehicles had converged on a childrens play area and were questioning a woman. Other parents in the park had telephoned the police saying that someone was photographing children. The woman in question, who was there with her own child, was required to show her digital photos to the police. It was an unbelievable scene, and the woman in question was rather angry, but the police left after seeing a series of photos containing her child.
Hi Paul. It is getting quite absurd out there, even with your own kids in the park…