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My old mate Marc J was having a coffee with me on Friday. He had just emerged from one of the worlds mightiest photo agencies....... he was telling me how they were wasting time having to fend off calls from the management of the Eiffel Tower who were attempting to stop them selling pictures of the Eiffel Tower by night....... I have to say all those 'you must have permission to take photos' places depress the hell out of me........
There are places all over the place that try to control what you are able to do with pictures or try to stop the making of photographs in the first place.... Canary Wharf Tower tallest building in London has restricted the right of people to make photographs on their property....... but I don't think even they have tried to say you can't use or make photographs of their building from any place not on their property......... it seems just crazy that the classic iconic representation of Paris is attempting to restrict the photographs that can appear in magazines........ when you think about it...... it really is total madness......... and also seriously depressing for reportage types.
The restrictions on photography and press freedom emanating from France really are completely depressing....... when you think that really street photography comes from France...... and that the most famous iconic street photographs were shot in Paris by Cartier Bresson and others......... but would now be illegal now under French law...........
Peoples new found 'right' in France not to have their picture taken or published also destroys swathes of press freedom.
Rubbish privacy law that can mean voters know nothing of their politicians and therefore allows a culture of hidden corruption where the pertinent information is kept to the ruling elite and the mass of the electorate are kept ignorant is even coming to Britain in the form of European Law.........
The classic example for me of the operation of this French privacy law was President Mitterand and his two families....... the official family and the family he had with his mistress....... the elites in Paris were completely aware of this....... but of course French privacy law meant that the electorate knew nothing...... until he died and they were both at his funeral. Once he was dead the truth could be told to the electorate but not while he was seeking office.......
I once covered a vile child abuse ring that was incredibly linked to some people in the Belgium Government...... again all this had gone on under the complacent eye of the Belgium media...... It was so used to being in a cosy pact of silence brought about by similar privacy laws..... that it had reported nothing and exposed nothing for years .........
Privacy Law and peoples 'right not to be photographed' goes hand in hand with hiding the truth especially corruption. It limits the right of society in general to know what goes on all around....... and peoples right to know how they are governed in particular. Oh yeah and it destroys the freedom to make and see art.............
Cheers Jez XXXXXXXXXXX
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.... The photography and slightly mad life of reportage artist Jez Coulson ....