It’s been in the news quite a bit in the recent months, in the name of ’security’ photographers have been stopped and searched in London by the police and prevented from taking photos by security guards in public areas. Less civil liberties in the name of security. I remember that the first time a soldier shouted at me for taking his photo was in 1989’s Budapest, the iron curtain was in the process of dissolving, but a bit of Soviet climate was still in the air.
The second time was at an Israeli checkpoint in Hebron, a photo of that crappy checkpoint clearly showed that Israeli checkpoints are not ‘terminals’ like the one that some tourists might see between Jerusalem and the West Bank or the Bethlehem one. Real checkpoints in the heart of the West Bank are ugly places. I guess my camera was saved from the soldiers by my innocent smile that time round.
The third time my camera was at risk was in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 2009, exactly 20 years after the massacre. On that occasion I simpy played naive: I was just a tourist who pretended not to understand a word of what the Chinese soldiers asked me in their best English. Once again my G9 was saved.
Now here we are in London. Silly me who thought that banning photography was a thing that happened under authoritarian regimes or in occupied territories.
Mass Photo Gathering
12 Noon
Saturday 23rd January 2010
Trafalgar Square
http://photographernotaterrorist.org/
