photographer Archives

Let 'Em Fly! by Jano Silva — Let ‘Em Fly! by Jano Silva

Happy Friday y’all! Ready for links? Here goes: Frank Underwood as photographer, BuzzFeed reinvents the photographer’s rights wheel, controversy over photoshoot of poor people, and granting prisoners a photographic wish.

Ansel Adams wasn’t the only early photographer to explore Yosemite. Carleton Watkins also photographed the area in the late 1800’s.
The documentary work by Brenda Ann Kenneally of people living in poverty in Troy, NY caused a barrage of negative internet comments after it was featured in Slate. The New York Times has a good breakdown of the controversy.
This week is the 45th anniversary of the moon landing, so check out some of these rare photos of the Apollo 11 mission.
The New York Daily News laid off 17 journalists this week, including five photographers.
Oh Buzzfeed, this is a tale as old as time. Welcome to D.C., where security guards at Federal buildings enforce rules that don’t exist. “Which ugly Federal building are you?” quiz coming soon.
Border Patrol agents hold boy scouts at gunpoint for taking a picture of them. “The agent immediately confiscated his camera, informed him he would be arrested, fined possibly $10,000 and 10 years in prison,” Fox was quoted as saying.
A D.C. couple had their first photo as an engaged couple taken by Frank Underwood.
The Afghan police officer who killed AP photographer Anja Niedringhaus got the death penalty.
Photographer Mark Strandquist asked hundreds of prisoners a straightforward question — if your cell could look out on one scene, what would it be?
“He noticed that Chinese customers would often make a day out of it — bringing their tea and snacks, getting some shopping done and then treating themselves to a nice nap.” Kevin Frayer documents the not uncommon practice of IKEA shoppers in China taking naps in display rooms.
Wired goes “On the Prowl With Instagram’s Ultimate Street Photographer” Daniel Arnold.
Queen Photobombs Hockey Player’s Selfie. Enough said.
And finally, CityLab shares a video about the National Wildlife Property Repository, which houses millions of “products” of the illegal wildlife trade. The property includes an abundance of tigers.

Last Saturday, Baltimore police arrested Noah Scialom, a contributing photographer to the Baltimore City Paper, while they were breaking up a Halloween party. Scialom, as he reports, had identified himself as press and began photographing the incident. He left the house with the other party goers until he reached the sidewalk, and continued to take pictures, when he was roughly taken to the ground and arrested.

It’s a familiar story to anyone who regularly uses a camera in public, and a source of constant tension between police and the press, between the needs of security and the Constitutional rights of citizens. The National Press Club held a discussion in October on the subject as part of their Free Speech Week, inviting photographers, lawyers, and even a representative from the D.C. Metro Police Department to share their thoughts.

So what rights do you have to record in public? While the answer seems straight-forward to most of us (if it’s in the public realm, we can record it), the courts are only just beginning to define the right through rulings. But this first step is great news for photographers. The nation’s founders probably didn’t predict the prevalence of smartphones in 2013, so having defined rules about how the First Amendment applies to modern-day recording devices benefits everybody. [Read more…]

Friday Links

Know Your Rights as a Photographer