I'm not a terrorist...!
Has anyone experienced problems taking photographs in London ? I had a recent run-in with an over-zealous railway employee at Charing Cross. He asked me to stop photographing, which I did, but he also demanded I delete the images I had just taken. I knew that he had no legal authority to demand this and I politely pointed this out. He got all hot under the collar and called a policeman, with whom I had a very pleasant chat and I kept my images.
I work for a central government department and I fully understand the security issues at stake here… but I still think there is an unreasonable amount of paranoia being whipped up against photographers.
Have you been challenged anywhere ? Do you know what your rights are as a photographer on the streets of London ?
Rose
Urban Umbra
unfortunately yes, 3 times in the last month or so….by security guards, no police yet :(
Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allows the police to stop and search anyone in a specific area
click here for pdf of the rules
There was an article in the Guardian, about people with professional looking equipment, being harassed, all over the city.
Rose Atkinson replied
Many thanks for posting the links !
George Swann
Rose I wrote a journal about problems a couple of months ago, and have contributed to other peoples threads. It will only get worse, the people who seem to get targeted are those who have DSLR’s, they are deemed to be professional, so must be up to no good, people with point and shoot cameras seem to have less problems. The Telegraph ran some horror stories from people who had suffered at the hands of these jobsworths, and also our rights, but they don’t seem to care, it makes them feel important. In fact I am surprised that you have only just encountered a problem, you are one of my favourite people on RB, I think that your Trafalgar Square images are so good, I have often wondered why some idiot has not tried to stop you taking photographs there before now. I find it all so depressing.
Rose Atkinson replied
It’s depressing and so illogical ! What makes these people think a DSLR user is a higher risk than someone using a P&S anyway ?? And even when DSLRs are accepted there is an irrational belief that if you are using a tripod you must be a professional… !
Thank you for your kind comments :-) Perhaps the reason I have “got away with it” so far is that 99% of my Trafalgar Square shots are taken with a compact as that’s what I carry every day.
Rose Atkinson
Oh, and by the way… did you know that it is actually illegal to take photographs on Trafalgar Square for commercial gain ? To get permission to do so you have to pay a hefty fee to the London Mayor’s office. But the North Terrace (the bit in front of the National Gallery) belongs to Westminster and has no such restrictions…
George Swann
I stopped using an SLR several years ago because of problems. I was considering investing in a Canon and a specialist macro lens, but this kind of thing puts me off, I am not inclined to spend all that money and then suffer aggro. Please try and keep your Square images coming.
berndt2
I’ve only been accosted once and that was on a train platform – not the tube, but one of the privately run ones. So I acceded to their request knowing they had the right to stop me (in my defence I was taking a shot of a funny sign and felt obliged to record it). I use a DSLR daily and have not yet been stopped. Perhaps my Pentax isn’t classed as ‘professional’ enough? If so… I’m glad!
Urban Umbra
update….I was stopped twice last week!!! Once at the Nat West Tower, they were very polite there and let me carry on. Also near the Old Bailey, by a proper little Hitler…’the landlord doesn’t want people taking photo’s of his building’. So I carried on anyway! Love to see what they think they can do to someone taking pictures from the public highway! Plus I’d taken pics of this building 3 or 4 times before this year and had no such trouble.