Two photography posts in succession? I better stop this sharpish!

Anyhow, after yesterdays somewhat sarcastic opinion about a photo contest, here is one which is vastly more worthy and exciting.

Britain Loves Wikipedia is a photography contest that will be held in museums and cultural institutions across the UK, with the aim of increasing the number of pictures available to illustrate existing articles on Wikipedia and to inspire new articles.

There is no prize as such, as you give your photos to the open-source community, but there is the warm glow of doing something that will benefit the UK’s museums, which is difficult to replicate with mere trinkets.

(updated – have been informed that there will be trinkets for the winners, but I am sure that is not our motivation!)

The event will kick off with a launch event at the V&A on Sun, 31st Jan 2010, followed by a series of events each weekend at locations around the UK. The event will run for the whole month of February 2010.

They are still seeking museums to join in – so if you are the responsible person at one of my favourite little London museums, kindly fire off an email to nick@collectionstrust.org.uk or via Twitter to be included and get lots of visitors sporting cameras turning up on your doorstep in February.

Other websites of interest:

Seeking museums to love Wikipedia

Wikimedia seeks underexposed UK Museum

Wikimedia page about the event

I am writing about this not because I think the contest is noteworthy due to wondrous prizes, but for the sheer irony of the issues it raises.

Over the years I have lived in the docklands area, I have on many occasions been stopped from taking photos either on the DLR stations, or within the Canary Wharf estate.

Although the Canary Wharf estate management office assures me that, despite the actions of their security guards, my photography is fine, I have never had a reply from the DLR about their official policy.

Flicking through one of the free rags given out in the area, I notice a photo competition.

The terms are simply delicious – they want photos taken from DLR trains or on their stations.

Yes – there we have it! The next time I am stopped from taking photos on the DLR for security or privacy reasons, I shall inform the person that I am entering a competition run by their own company.

Huzzah!

Anyhow – more details here.

In the 1970’s-80s large swathes of the docklands area was left as wasteland following the development of container cargo trade – and as such there are quite a lot of photos of the area showing the wastelands left over from the demolition of buildings and warehouses.

In a way, I quite like the desolation and slightly mourn its passing.

Therefore, I was quite delighted to see a building demolished right next to Tower Bridge, and while surrounded by solid fencing, there is a tiny gap you can just about fit a camera through to get some photos.

It’s quite rare to get photo opportunities like this now – especially with the rise of health & safety making it difficult to (ahem) enter the building sites.

Google Maps location if you want to poke your camera through the gaps.

There is an ongoing and sometimes very contentious debate about the rights of people to take photos in public spaces and the attitude of the police and security officers when they see a camera pointing at something interesting.

There have been many reports of the police, and more often the hobby-bobbies (PCSO) who seem to treat photographers as a threat to be stomped on. Ironically, with the proliferation of cameraphones, the ire of the police and security guards seems to be mainly directed at people holding “old-fashioned” conventional cameras as we are presumably more of a threat.

That anyone being naughty is more likely to surreptitiously use a camera phone than stand boldly in public with a big hunk of electronics in-front of their face seems not to have occurred to people.

Anyhow…. this morning my email pinged to alert me to a new statement from the Met Police (you can subscribe to them) and I was delighted to read that a fairly sensible advisory statement has been issued.

The key message is that the police cannot stop you photos in public, even if citing anti-terrorism acts, but they have the right to question you if you film an officer (or ex-officer!) and can ask to see photos – but not demand that you delete them.

The issue of photography in so called pseudo-public locations, such as shopping centers or the London Underground is not addressed – and it would be good if TfL issued a public statement on the topic as the police have done.

The link to the full document is here, which you are advised to print out a copy if you are a regular photographer – but below I summarise the key points.

Photography advice issued

Members of the public and the media do not need a permit to film or photograph in public places and police have no power to stop them filming or photographing incidents or police personnel.

The Terrorism Act 2000 does not prohibit people from taking photographs or digital images in an area where an authority under section 44 (or S43) is in place.

Officers do have the power to view digital images contained in mobile telephones or cameras carried by a person searched under S44 (and S43) of the Terrorism Act 2000, provided that the viewing is to determine whether the images contained in the camera or mobile telephone are of a kind, which could be used in connection with terrorism. Officers also have the power to seize and retain any article found during the search which the officer reasonably suspects is intended to be used in connection with terrorism.

Any officer making an arrest for an offence under Section 58a must be able to demonstrate a reasonable suspicion that the information was of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

(the difficulty here is that a photo might be useful to a terrorist – but that I have no intention of passing it to said terrorist – so where does the line get drawn?)

There is however nothing preventing officers asking questions of an individual who appears to be taking photographs of someone who is or has been a member of Her Majesty’s Forces (HMF), Intelligence Services or a constable.

–

In conclusion – its a good start and I am pleased that the Police have addressed the issue, although in the grand scheme of things, I think a policy statement, probably from the Mayors office covering all types of locations that photographers are likely to cover within London would be a good idea.

Update:

Sadly, the news that photographers can take photos in public hasn’t reached Chatham yet, where a photographer was arrested under the Terrorism Act only yesterday for taking a photo of a police officer while being quizzed as to why he was taking photos in the local high street.

This is probably more the remit of The Greenwich Phantom, but as part of the Greenwich foot tunnel lies on MY side of the river, and this concerns a particular bugbear of mine, I shall talk about it.

The tunnel, for those who are not familiar with it is a 100 year old tunnel under the river linking Greenwich to the Isle of Dogs, and has lifts/stairs at each end.

I rarely take the lift down on the north side, as that seems a bit lazy, but occasionally I treat myself – and a while ago noticed in passing that a Health and Safety notice in the lift had been amended to state that photography was banned in the tunnel.

Thinking about it, I was sure there was a ban on flash photography, but now it seems to have been recently changed to a complete ban on all photography. Today though, the southern lift on the Greenwich side was actually working for once – although the operator in the lift was on the phone to someone and it seemed it was about to be turned off again.

Inside was a large, newish looking sign warning that photography is banned – but the health & safety sign was still unedited, and my suspicions were proved correct. The original sign only banned flash photography!

For some reason, over the past few months someone has decided that an existing (if dubious) ban on flash photography for health and safety reasons has to be expanded to a complete ban on all photography in the tunnel.

I’ve always been curious about the ban on flash photography as this is just a foot tunnel and hardly likely to cause anything more serious than a bit of annoyance to fellow walkers – and a lot less annoyance than screaming kids – but a total ban on all photography?

I use the tunnel a lot, and people are always taking photos down there without people dying or getting injured. An artist at the local market even sells rather somewhat arty photos of the tunnel.

What dire calamity has befallen the tunnel in the past few months that caused the H&S nazis to immediately clamp down on photography in the tunnel to prevent repeat of this mystery disaster?