From: shannon stoney (sstoney@pdq.net)
Date: 08/30/02-06:27:24 AM Z
Carl wrote:
>
>In 1990 I was a couple hundred rolls into a 35mm project photographing in
>Kingston, NY, and a group of four girls, aged about 11 or 12, said "hey
>Mister, take our picture". I shot several frames, one of which is among the
>best pictures I've ever made. Ten minutes later I got hasseled by the cops,
>because a neighbor called them to say a great big bad man was going around
>the neighborhood taking pictures of little girls. Since that is _not_ in
>fact a crime, and back then the cops knew it wasn't, I was allowed to go on
my way.
>
>> I suspect today I'd have needed a lawyer to get my butt out of the
>>hoosegow.
I have run into this problem in my neighborhood, even though I am a
small woman. People seem exceptionally paranoid about this, and the
hassling I got about it happened last spring, before all these child
abductions that happened recently. One lady told me never to take a
picture anywhere in the vicinity of her house, not of her flowers,
not of her cats, not of her yard! And this is somebody that I sort
of know or have talked with on occasion! Another neighbor told me
that she knew someone who was worried because I had photographed her
daughter. So I simply stopped photographing children at all. This is
sort of sad, because I thought having figures in my digital montage
landscapes made them better, and usually children are the main folks
that are out on the sidewalks and in the yards playing. Also it's
sad that people have become so fearful, perhaps with reason, but also
with a bit of hysteria thrown in. It seems that the fear is that you
are photographing children in order to put their picture on the
internet or something.
As I understand it, if somebody is out in public, it's ok to take
their picture legally. But I agree with CArl: the fact that it's
technically legal doesn't mean, nowadays, that you wouldn't get in
trouble for it.
--shannon
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