Climate of Fear Coming Here?
Ever hear of photographic profiling? Similar to the reprehensible action–street racial profiling–it concerns rousing suspicions over certain people holding cameras and taking pictures on the street. And it’s happening in the cosmopolitan city of London.
A recent article in the London Times described a poster in the tube (American version of the subway) asking commuters to call a special hotline “if they don’t like the look of a photographer.” I didn’t “like the look” of the cop who wrote me a ticket last week. Is there a number I can call? (couldn’t resist)
Anyway, this is an official, government-funded campaign sponsored by its Metropolitan Police department. The poster text states:
Thousands of people take photos every day. What if one of them seems odd?
The poster goes to say that terrorists use cameras for surveillance. It gives a number to call.
Besides perptuating a climate of fear, there’s another thing the organizers of this campaign don’t realize. That most of the great photographers were street photographers–Robert Frank, Robert Doisneau, Cartier Bresson, Brassai, Diane Arbus, among others. How many of the campaign organizers have a Doisneau print hanging on one of the walls of their home? I bet at least of few do.
In New York, street photography is very popular among both tourists and the pros. When I began shooting in the early 1990s, my “genre” was to be in a car, ride in the passenger’s seat and ride slowly though the streets of New York taking pictures of unknown strangers in unique or gritty surroundings. I was in my 20s then and was trying to capture a feeling solitude and lonliness. This technique, combined with movement, was my art at the time. None of my subjects ever suspected a thing or they really didn’t care. It didn’t hurt anyone or even bother anyone.
This style is still among my favorite work today.
In London, the campaign relates to “the look of” anyone, from global tourists carrying point and shoots, to pros carrying DSLRS and tripods. But I doubt someone will call the number when they see a gaggle of tourists all photographing the same London building. This is targeted at the pros.
In the article, New York street photographer Jeff Mermelstein, who has been snapping the streets of the city since the 1970s and published a well-received book Sidewalk on the subject, is concerned about the latest poster in London.
“I think that’s awful,” he tells the Times. “Street photography is an important part of the documentation of our time. If that’s discouraged, in the long term that will be a substantial loss.”
So three questions remain unanswered in my mind.
Did this “Big Brother-like” campaign within a U.S. democratic neighbor evolve because the paparazzi took it too far in regards to Princess Diana? If so, I don’t see Paris getting on that bandwagon.
Or was the conception of the new world we live in, and the fact that terrorists could be randomly hanging out with us on the streets and in the subways? I just don’t see them doing street photography.
Third, is this campaign likely to move across the ocean to the U.S.? I certainly hope not. Then we will have let our fear rule our lives. And New York city, so far, has not fallen victim to this.