So often lately I have encountered the issue of whether or not it is wrong, or even illegal, to photograph something. Sometimes there is a valid enough reason not to take a photograph. But at times prohibition acquires a surreal dimension, as in the true story of Keith McCammon who inadvertently photographed the wrong building - one that houses a high-security defence project. The full story is here.
Marc Fisher, who blogged the story at the Washington Post says:
The bottom line is that McCammon was caught in a classic logical trap. If he had only known the building was off-limits to photographers, he would have avoided it. But he was not allowed to know that fact. “Reasonable, law-abiding people tend to avoid these types of things when it can be helped,” McCammon wrote. “Thus, my request for a list of locations within Arlington County that are unmarked, but at which photography is either prohibited or discouraged according to some (public or private) policy. Of course, such a list does not exist. Catch-22.”
The only antidote to this security mania is sunshine. Only when more and more Americans do as McCammon has done and take the time and effort to chronicle these excesses and insist on answers from authorities will we stand a chance of restoring balance and sanity to the blend of liberty and security that we are madly remixing in these confused times.
I would change one word in that paragraph - “only when more Americans photographers do as McCammon has done…” because it is a global insanity. The whole world needs that special kind of sunshine.
On Flickr there is a group You can’t take pictures here! which chronicles everyday prohibition excesses quite nicely.
