Trains, guns, and photographs


Marc Fisher's column in the Washington Post today is an interesting case study of what happens (guess) when a photo student decides to take pictures at a suburban commuter train station. Especially when that student is vaguely foreign-looking. Predictably, she gets the third-degree, although I should say the same thing happened to me and my wife at the Pentagon a few months after 9/11.

I went down on a fall day to shoot the tourists, impromptu memorials, etc on the edge of the Pentagon grounds. It was really sunny so I ended up waiting for more than an hour for the sort of pre-dusk light I wanted. Shot a few things and went home. The next day my wife (who works at Voice of America) wanted to go too, so we went back so she could do a few radio interviews with those coming to see the damaged building.

After a few minutes, soldiers with guns approached us and politely asked who we were and what we were doing. I was told that Pentagon video cameras record all tourist activity on the site and they noticed me hanging around the day before. I thought they would quickly figure out we weren't some shady characters. But no, we were (again, politely) marched down the hillside to a military vehicle parked at the foot of the building. As my light went from great to gone, we were asked more questions and had to fill out paperwork with our personal info. You might assume that paperwork would just disappear into a bureaucratic void. But days later somebody showed up at my wife's workplace asking if she did indeed work there. I guess here is where I should point out that my wife is from Senegal and has a slight accent.

The story just sort of ends there, there's no real punchline. I've heard plenty of worse stories: a documentary filmmaker having his film confiscated for shooting from a DC-NY train; an amateur photographer getting hassled by police for shooting pics of a Marilyn Monroe mural in DC; a Latino friend who shoots on the weekends getting followed and accosted by officers after photographing a downtown demonstration.

Other examples abound. I won't try to wrap up with any profound conclusions, they pretty much speak for themselves. Ok, except to say - don't forget this is supposed to be 'the capital of the free world'.

Posted: Wed - March 1, 2006 at 09:46 AM          

©