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Street photographers fear for their art amid climate of suspicion - Times Online

Here's a sobering article on the general hysteria over "terrorism," which has resulted in getting street photographers arrested or detained or questioned. Anyone seen taking photographs, especially covertly or seemingly so, is likely to get in trouble these days. But how can you be a good street photographer if you don't conceal just a little bit the fact that you're taking photos in the first place? You want that candid moment, right?

Tags: freedom, paranoia, photography, public_space, street_photography, terrorism on 2008-03-26 -All Annotations (0) -About

Matt Stuart photographs the unscripted drama of the London streets. Entirely
spontaneous, his pictures are made possible by a combination of instinct,
cunning and happy coincidence, revealing the beauty and significance of the
everyday - what the rest of us see but don't notice, moments that vanish
faster than the blink of an eye.

For his efforts, Stuart has picked up a little collection of pink
stop-and-search slips, souvenirs of practising a century-old art form in a
city increasingly paranoid and authoritarian.
After 11 years, Stuart is
something of an old hand. Using the street photographer's traditional tool
of choice - the discreet and near silent Leica camera - he knows how to make
himself invisible, make an image and move on. He rarely runs into trouble;
when he does, he knows his rights.
a new poster campaign by the Metropolitan Police is inviting Londoners to
call a hotline if they don't like the look of a photographer. “Thousands of
people take photos every day,” runs the text. “What if one of them seems
odd?” The poster states that terrorists use cameras for surveillance.
“People need to understand the context,” Stuart says. “We've been mistaken for
paparazzi and attacked since Princess Diana died. As far as the public's
concerned, if you're a man with a camera you're probably a paedophile. And
now, if we look ‘odd', we're also more than likely terrorists.”
To some, the very idea of covertly photographing strangers might seem “odd”,
even distasteful. And yet a proportion of those same people will own a print
of Robert Doisneau's Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville, or have sent greetings
cards showing 1930s Paris, as recorded by Brassai. Street photography has
given us a lot. More, perhaps, than we know.
Street photography doesn't just document what our environment used to look
like; it shows us how it really looks now, freezing the moment to reveal the
weirdness and magic of the split second ... Stuart's photograph of a young
dancer, in mid-air, upside-down, in Trafalgar Square ... Mermelstein's of a
woman out walking her pet iguana. These images reveal the surreal in the
real, force us to appreciate that our city spaces are collages of constantly
shifting, surprising juxtaposition.
I ask Mermelstein whether he's ever hesitated before recording a complete
stranger. He says he has ... “but I believe firmly that if something's in
the public domain then one has the right to render them photographically.
That if you're out on the street, you're in public.
Add Sticky Note
- - interesting, how that compares to France...
  posted by lampertina on 2008-03-26
But aren't there times when he'd rather not be photographed? “Living
in London I'm filmed 300 times a day by CCTV, so I've got over that
quickly.”
Add Sticky Note
- - touchE!
  posted by lampertina on 2008-03-26
“In France, traditionally one of
the great centres of street photography, the law now says you own the rights
to your own image, so street photography's become a dead art. In London
there's a growing community of photographers, using digi- tal technology,
not just cameras, but blogs, too, to document the city and give each other
instant feedback.”
“I'm not going to belittle the issue of terrorism, but this is paranoia. And
unfortunately, since Lady Di and now this link with terrorists,
photography's seen by many people as something that's a little ... cheap.”
Street photography on the net
www.in-public.com

A showcase of contemporary street photographers, including work by Matt
Stuart, plus a “masters” section, featuring the brilliant and influential
Joel Meyerowitz.
www.seconds2real.com

An international street photography collective, with a newsletter, and links
to interviews by and films of masters of the art.
www.public-life.org

A German-based collective, including galleries, news and book reviews.
www.billcharles.com/merm/jeffmermelstein_1.htm

Work by Jeff Mermelstein, chronicler of New York.
www.magnumphotos.com

The world's most famous photographic agency includes work by some of the
pioneers and masters of street photography, including Henri Cartier-Bresson
and Elliott Erwitt.

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