I was out and about today, making photos of the huge donut signs (most of the signs are ~23 ft tall!) we have in abundance in the Southern California area. At my last stop, I was standing on the sidewalk (public space!) trying to frame up my last shot for the day and a car pulled into the drive through. I waited a bit to see if they’d leave quickly, but no, they were there for several minutes. I snapped a few more frames and started walking back to my car when the guy in the drive through got out of his car and started yelling at me. I explained I was taking pictures of the signs and even showed him photos of the other signs I had from earlier in the day. He still wanted to know why I was taking pictures of him; I tried to explain that he just happened to be in the frame. He thought that him giving me the finger, which I didn’t see, would get me to stop. Finally the owner came out and he backed off. I told the owner I was just taking pictures for fun; he didn’t seem to care. The angry guy had a few more choice words for me… I got in my car and left.
I’ve been accosted before, this isn’t the first time. I generally try and defuse the situation, but I felt like this guy might take a swing at me this time.
Generally, when I’m out and about, people will either quietly avoid getting in front of the lens, or they strike up a conversation about what I’m doing. I’m always happy to talk talk to friendly people. Fewer will actually ask me to take their pictures (always say yes to that!) and still fewer than that will be angry, as this guy was today.
How do you handle these situations? Do you know your rights as a photographer?
That sucks, big time. I know that it can be a drag on your motivation to continue shooting and getting enjoyment out of the hobby, including focusing on sharpening your skills being used at that time.
When it comes to another private person (not law enforcement), knowing your rights might not matter as much as simply defusing the situation. I will often make it a point of looking past the person to the subject and being obvious that I am not even paying attention a person. This sometimes helps a little bit as they realize they are not actually the subject of the photograph (even when they are sometimes).
Unfortunately sometimes we simply can’t avoid very irate folks who will be determined to let you know their anger. In these cases you can make it a point to go somewhere very public nearby (inside the donut shop for instance), and don’t hesitate to call the cops immediately if you feel threatened in any way. Most irate folks will rarely pursue things when there’s plenty of people around to witness things, and if they persist, you can call for the cops asap (which will usually defuse things quickly).
Another option is to print yourself a “Press” badge and wear it on a lanyard where it can be prominently displayed. Just helpfully point out that you’re shooting photos for a story - and then ask them if they’d consider being interviewed for it.
In my negative encounters, I think a press badge would’ve done more harm than good, as in today, when I told the owner of that shop I was just doing it for fun and he just sort of shrugged. He did ask if I was from a company. But I also like abandon buildings, underpasses, and other locations people would consider seedy, I don’t think a press badge would help. I’d consider your situation before printing out a fake one.
I also find that with regular people (not law enforcement/security) I’m much more likely to just defuse the situation and leave regardless of what is happening, where as with law enforcement and security I’ll actually stand up for myself more.
The last time I had the police called on me for photographing something, I refused to give them my camera media, as I was on public property and respectfully explained that I knew I was in the clear. He just sort of chuckled and said OK, then left.
This is one of the reasons why I just don’t photograph with anyone who looks even a bit seedy around. Here in NZ you even feel scrutinising eyes on you taking photos wherever/whenever kids are around, in public places. Particulary as a male. Any shots that might include random kids in public places usually happens when I have my wife next to me, or not at all. You get the feeling a middle-aged guy taking shots is nothing more than a dirty old man. yeesh!
Through the years I have taken many photos of children in different countries. Much of that photography has been done when I’m working alone.
It’s true that in places like New Zealand and some other Western countries, some people who are responsible for children have developed a strong fear and even hatred of male photographers whenever they’re in the vicinity of kids. I often wonder if these same people have ever once given any thought to the pervasive sexualization of children in modern societies, especially in advertising and popular commercial culture, let alone done anything about it. Alas challenging such norms requires thought, education, and organizing, all of which is harder than lashing out a stranger in anger or fear.
I find it much easier to work in countries where children have not been sexualized to the extent they have in the West.
Another problem is that what is an innocent photo of a kid to you and me and 98% of rest of the population is turned into an object of sexual desire by sex predators and paedophiles. For example, if you look at some of the people who favorite some of my photos of kids on sites like Flickr, you’ll see what I mean. They are a tiny minority, but still I wish there was a way to report such users to some authority, but I don’t know how to do that. You can block a user on Flickr, but what I want to do is flag them as a potential paedophile.
I think this is a really delicate subject, and a potential source of irreparable mistakes… the thing is that in an era where unverified rumours can spread very quickly on the social media, false positives might ruin the lives of people that are light-years away from pedophilia…
To be clear, I don’t want to protect in any way such dangerous perversions (I’m a family man, and I have such fears in the back of my mind all the time…). But I think that such things should be reported in a non-public way, and only to the administrators of whatever social media system is concerned.
That’s right. I don’t see how it’s possible to do that with Yahoo, unfortunately.
I completely agree that such matters must be handled by competent authorities who have the tools to tackle the problem, and not mob justice by internet vigilantes.
Having said that recently I have seen a couple of cases where it is clear that the person favoriting photos on Flickr is a paedophile, because all their favorites are highly sexual photos of adults mixed with photos of kids. Extremely disturbing stuff.
@paperdigits you were lucky you only got threatened. A friend of mine was doing some street photography in a busy downtown square last year and got sucker punched by some guy with no warning. Result: black eye and a trashed camera.
