Cops versus photographers

Well-known photoblogger Thomas Hawk has caused a stir with his post relating his experience trying to photograph a BP oil refining facility.

He argues that he was legitimately photographing a publicly visible facility from a public place (Long Beach Harbor Bridge). The police turned up and after what seems to be some minor harassment, insisted that he leave.

Hawk thinks he has the high road, but comments seem mixed, suggesting he should expect the police to be protective of potential "targets." What do you think?

Here's the link http://thomashawk.com/

Tags: harassment, photoblog, photographer, place, police, public

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Permalink Reply by Carlton Ward on May 31, 2009 at 5:02am

And then there is this: a downloadable pdf file you can print and carry with you - http://www.krages.com/ThePhotographersRight.pdf

Carlton

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Permalink Reply by Roger on June 16, 2009 at 5:00am

Please don't post irrelevant content on threads. It will be deleted.

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Permalink Reply by Jordan Stead on June 15, 2009 at 11:59pm

ANYTHING you can see from a public common (such as a street) is totally OK and legal to shoot. That's the nitty gritty. Don't ever let a cop tell you otherwise.

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Permalink Reply by nathan mccreery on August 3, 2009 at 1:58pm

That is absolutely not true. If you photograph private property and publish it without a release you can expect civil action. If you don't believe that's true then come to the southwest and photograph on tribal land, specifically the pueblo areas north and west of Albuquerque. They will tolerate you driving across their land but if they see a camera you can expect a visit from the tribal police. You'll have your butt in a sling in the tribal lockup and probably get your camera confiscated.

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Permalink Reply by nathan mccreery on August 3, 2009 at 8:44am

You have to pick your battles and ask yourself; is it worth the hassle? I don't know Thomas Hawkes or anything about him but I do know that there are people who act stupidly on purpose, or do things to purposefuly provoke the police. My guess is that this is one of those situations and that is he got "hassled" its because he got belligerant. If that is the case he's lucky he didn't get hauled off tot he local hoosegow. My dealings with police, park rangers etc. is that they are emminently reasonable, have way more to do that than they have time for and would really rather not be "hassling" a photographer but someone at a plant or installation complained so they have to. Since 9/11 everything has changed. You can like it or not like; however that is the world we live in.