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I saw this today in Soho NYC .......... What on earth is this about? 'Photography is Prohibited' in an Ice Cream Parlor ?...... I just hate stuff like this.........
I guess being a photojournalist makes you bolshy. Maybe you have to be a trouble maker type to get into it. Certainly you need a pretty breezy view of compliance with all sorts of rules and regulations. The obvious one is 'No Photography' . If you feel like complying with this every time you see a sign to this effect it lets face it....... photojournalism isn't gonna be your thing....... on the other hand if you get an overwhelming urgency to get a shot of the sign to add to your collection well you are leaning in the right direction.
You don't always have to be in conflict with rules and regulations as part of your work...... but it seems sadly you will be in almost a majority of days ...... pretty well most days someone will say something along the lines of : 'Have you got permission to take photos?'.......'no photographs in here'...... or 'you need written permission from our Press Office' or 'you need to be accompanied by someone from our PR company to take photographs'....... 'you need to speak to the military censor'...... or 'you are breaking a military closed zone' ....... 'Its a Federal Offense to photograph this building' (Even though its on Wall St in NYC ?)'...... 'You need permission from the Mayors office to kneel down and take a photo!" (again in NYC.....er..... thanks Rudy???) 'all cameras have to be left at security' ........... 'All press cameras will be confiscated and journalists expelled'.......... or on occaison things a with real heavy duty threat........ 'You take any photos of the bodies and we will kill you as well!' (Serbian irregular forces....) ......... Sometimes you have to comply but most of this stuff has to be openly held in contempt and ignored or some at least effectively ignored even if only secretly while pretending to comply or sort of pretending not to be a press guy.
If its going to be a big hassle...... I need to feel like the pictures are worth getting...... either really interesting images........ or... important....... or at least..... I like there to be a sensation of justice and decency on your side....... I don't do snatched photographs of pop stars or any celebrities....Im just not interested in them or the result...... but i have done in the past 'snatches' of people I think are 'bad guys'.... I can remember starting years back 'door-stopping' some multimillionaire slum landlord with Andy Bell then News Editor at Time Out London (now producer at the BBC's Panorama) he was shouting : "how would you like it if your mother was forced to live in the same conditions as Mrs Jonas?" ( an elderly woman living in vile and degrading conditions we had visited earlier that day)
Clearly its best not to be in conflict for most pictures...... being nice and winning people over is the best route and is very important if possible...... but clearly not always possible especially with security people or real bad guys.
When people without the authority tell you not to take photographs you often need to tell them you will not comply with their request. When people who are in authority tell you not to take photographs you need to pretend to comply or get permission by appealing over them to people in real authority........ lots of this leads to petty situations where you either dont back down or appear to but carry on........ it makes you bolshy...... you are constantly....... in open conflict with low level security types or sort of going round them in a bolshy way ........ "I'm in the public street not on your property....... I have every right to photograph your building from here blah, blah, blah"......... I have been expelled from the odd country for repeatedly violating military closed zones ......... and spent a fair bit of time under arrest or negotiating with the police of various totalitarian regimes....... in my work....... yeah......... Im bolshy alright.
I have a feeling this must be seeping into my off duty life...... you know when you are tricked by those signs where it says $3-00 per hour to park...... then you return to your car and now they are requesting $20-00 even though you have only been there 45 mins ...... it does say it in tiny letters at the bottom...... 'the above pricing does not apply after 7PM on Sunday Night $20-00 minimum charge'....... but clearly the sign is designed to trick you...... most people will bemoan this fraud and then pay up....... I now weirdly flip into professional bolshy mode........... so when the guy says : "Well how you going to get out if you don't pay.....huh?"....... you slide your rental car right up to the gate lightly push until it automatically opens then drive through........ you walk back give him the the $3-00 while he is still in a state of shock that you have through your bolshy actions completely refused to accept his paradigm.......... then cruise off ....... er...... I guess......... Im becoming seriously bolshy full-stop.
Cheers Jez XXX
PS.............
For people who don't know or use this word.......... bolshy / bolshie ........ I think its mostly used kind of ironically in the UK ........ i guess I'm using it in the Adj sense as described below :
From the Free Online dictionary:
Noun 1.bolshy - refer to extreme radicals or revolutionaries Bolshevik, bolshie, radical - a person who has radical ideas or opinions Adj. 1. bolshy - obstreperous stroppy
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.... The photography and slightly mad life of reportage artist Jez Coulson ....