The A Train

[mbarrick]

The A-Train, in the spirit of this post and this post. In the name of "security" the MTA is banning photography in the New York subway. The Village Voice is, in protest, having a subway photo contest. They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

Comments

[contrasoma.livejournal.com]

Damn. That's worse than the whole "no wastepaper baskets in the Tube" business.

I'm a geek for public transit.

[seymour-glass.livejournal.com]

i love that quote and since you've put it down correctly i must correct it on my user info...what could possibly be the rationale for that decision??? yes i know they will bring up the bogey man of "terrorism", but really how does that apply??? soon you won't be able to take pictures of anything without permission...makes you wonder what they fear they have to hide...

[heevoling.livejournal.com]

in nj they already make it rather inconvenient for photographers by requiring a photo permit to shoot any nj transit vehicles, equipment or structures (and if you are interested, here is the nj transit police chief's response). i learned this the direct way when right after moving here i went into hoboken to shoot the newly renovated station for my father (who is, among other things, something of a history/train buff). i'd pulled off about two shots of the main waiting and ticketing area when a nj transit officer descended upon me and in full voice for the benefit of all in the vicinity that they should know their safety was in vigilant and capable hands (or so i would only presume to guess, since he was standing right next to me and the room was otherwise quiet) he ordered me to cease shooting immediately. naturally i inquired as to what was up with this, and out of that i learned i'd need to be issued a photo permit to continue taking pictures. fine. i then spent the next hour being handed off from one nj transit office and official to the next, consequently getting quite the tour of the facility, when finally i was told by the station master i'd need to "make an appointment" during such and such a time on a weekday to come in and have a permit issued, which would allow me to shoot just for that day. so i left the building and not seeing anyone around i figured i'd take a few shots of the exterior. i got off two again when the same cop came at me in a full run screaming for me to stop. you'd think i was actually doing something threatening. that's when i got the lecture about how it was within his right to confiscate the media from my camera, or at the very least he could force me to delete the pictures i had already taken, which interestingly enough he did not do. he also told me that since i was a "repeat offender" i could get in some kind of trouble for being disobedient and that "technically" he was supposed to call the "incident" into dispatch who would send out a team to ensure that no mistake be made nor public safety compromised in confiscating my media and escorting me far from the premises. i can only guess i was let off so easy because i just didn't quite fit their prime terrorist profile, though it could have been that by that point the officer himself was having a tough time taking my so-presumed threat very seriously.

the part that is unfortunate is that i was experimenting with exposures and so what few pictures i did get aren't as good as what i would have had, given a little more time to play.

as for ny, if i get anything at all, it's dirty looks from people who don't want their picture taken, or from people showing a passive curiosity in whatever has caught my eye. eh, the reality is if mta tries to enforce a photo ban it might slow people down for a day or two and then we'll just keep taking pictures anyway, even if so with a bit more discretion, which imo is how you get the best shots anyway.

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

It's not likely to stop me on my next trip. I've taken pictures I wasn't "allowed" to in Manhattan before. The one that came closest to getting my camera taken away was of people taking a smoke break with the smashed remains of the Winter Gardens in the background on November 1st, 2001, while the WTC ruins were still smoldering.

WTF?

[logik.livejournal.com]

What the hell could be the justification for this little bit of stupidity? Is the thinking (and I use the term loosely) here that somehow preventing people from photographing transit vehicles inside a station will prevent someone from being able to bomb them or the station? Of course by photographing the trains outside or having someone take a ride on the train with their eyes open will not help someone gather intelligence...

Gah!

If this kind of thinking keeps up, we are all a few years away from not being allowed to be awake in public.

Re: WTF?

[mbarrick.livejournal.com]

> we are all a few years away from not being allowed to be awake in public.

...So the average citizen has nothing to worry about.