Between the Cross-hairs

Common Dreams sent out a press release from photographer Jeffrey Sauger today. The text can be read here. Mr. Sauger of Royal Oak, Michigan and Jim West of Detroit were both arrested in Toledo, Ohio two years ago while covering "a rally by a small group of Nazis outside the Government Center building." According to the release, the police out-numbered the Nazis and the counter demonstrators by 5 to 1.

"Sauger was arrested on a charge of 'criminal trespass' as he tood in a media enclosure carrying professional cameras and lenses photographing the scene. Police charged that he lacked a 'temporary media permit' that had been issued to some journalists earlier in the day. Arriving later, carrying his own press credentials, Sauger said officers had told him he didn't need the pass.

"West was arrested as he stood, alone, taking photographs near a line of horses that was being ridden past and through counter protesters. He was charged with 'failure to disperse.'

"Charges of disorderly conduct against a third news photographer, Jeffrey Willis of the Toledo Journal, have been dismissed. Willis was also arrested while photographing the police response to a crowd of anti-Nazi protesters."

I note these are still photographers, not videographers for a TV station. More than 20 years ago, I was harassed by the DC police while covering an event for the Washington Post. The TV cameramen standing virtually next to me were not bothered. I have always theorized that they could have been on TV instantly but the paper wouldn't hit the stands until hours later. In this case, I suspect Mr. Willis was backed up by his newspaper's lawyers, whereas Misters Sauger and West are from out of town and were freelancers. They didn't have corporate lawyers backing them up.

Photographers have enough to do when on these kinds of assignments and the last thing a pro would be doing is interfering with the actual events. So they must have been photographing things that the police didn't want covered. The press release says the photographers were photographing how the police were treating the peaceful anti-Nazi protesters.

So the police were supporting the Nazi demonstrators?

I haven't uncovered any other coverage of this by the main-stream media. That's not a total surprise. Who cares about the rights of a couple of freelance photographers anyway? I do wonder if the National Press Photographers Association or Photo District News has covered this in any way. I don't recall seeing any squib in ASMP's literature, either.

Freelance photographers are really alone out on the front lines. They can make really easy targets for frustrated police officers.

A Bill to Restrict Use of Celebrity Images

I received the following advisement from ASMP in my e-mail. A prior e-mail had advised contacting the Senate, but didn't even mention the Assembly. Photographers in L.A. should have shown up at the office of sponsoring Senator Kuehl, but it's too late for that. She, like the governor, has her roots in acting (she worked under the name of Sheila James, and played Zelda on the old Dobie Gillis show) and I doubt that the governator's going to refuse to sign this bill. While my read on it is not quite the same as ASMP's, I suspect it will take a lawsuit to find out exactly how far the legislation actually goes to damage the value of older images.
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The California right-of-publicity bill (Senate Bill 771) has now passed in the Assembly. There are only two things we can do to improve the situation:

1. Call your Senator and ask that the bill be amended by deleting Subsection P, which is the provision that makes the legislation retroactive —- THIS MUST BE DONE BY FRIDAY.
2. Call the Governor and ask him to veto the bill.

It is crucial that you act right away! After Friday, it may be too late.

Please call your state Senator’s office. Here is where you can find his or her contact info:

http://192.234.213.69/smapsearch/framepage.asp

Governor Schwarzenegger’s main office telephone number is 916-445-2841.

Just tell the person who answers the phone that you are a constituent and admantly opposed to Senate Bill 771. Tell your Senator’s staff member that you want the bill amended by deleting the retroactive aspect, Subsection P. Tell the Governor’s staff member that you want him to veto the legislation.

It will only take a couple of minutes of your time, but those few minutes may save you years of problems.

Please feel free to pass this message along to other photographers you know who may not have received this message.

This is probably your last chance to prevent this bill from going through in its current form.

Thank you for your help and cooperation.

DAM!

DAM means digital asset management. I'm speding four days in a workshop taught by Seth Resnick and Jamie Spritzer of D-65 working our way through digital shooting and work flow. It should really prepare me for teaching the first digital Photo 10 class I'll be doing this spring. I've already realized that the six instructors made a couple of bad decisions about standardizing the beginning class and I'm going to have to talk to our department chair before classes start on February 5.

I've got a lot of work to do to set up my own work-flow, but that was the reason for taking the workshop. I'm also getting used to working with the new MacBookPro. I need to find out how to increase the size of my display text. It's just too small for me to read comfortably.

Photography in the News

There was a nice article in this morning's Washington Post about a retired Department of Interior employee who has photographed the national Christmas tree every year since 1963 (he's in his 80s now) and is the "unofficial historian" of the tree. He does slideshow lectures at retirement homes and such about the tree. He's gone from stills to video over the years to document the tree. It's good to have a personal project.

The New York times did a review of a show of the work of the "Mexican Weegee," Enriquez Metinides (I hope I remembered that correctly.) I was not familiar with him before this morning, but I am always glad to be able to bring some cultural diversity to the classroom. Last spring, it was the work of an African portrait photographer whose work had been discovered.

As I prepare my materials for next semester's Photo 10 class, I look for photographers to add to the collection of artists from which my students will get two about which to write. For the first assignment, I randomly hand out cards which have the name of a photographer and one image by him or her and the student needs to turn in a 2 page report about the photographer the next week. For the second assignment, the students get to look at the cards and pick out an image they like (or, if they are sophisticated enough, they'll pick out one by the name of a photographer they recognize) and turn in a second report. Most students find it a good learning exercise and it is a not too painful way of becoming more visually literate.

I also make my students turn in a gallery or other show review for the last project of the semester. I've had them attend one-person presentations sponsored by APA or concentrate on one photographer or image in a show. Some of them have actually come away realizing how political photography can be and others never get a clue. One of the disappointments about teaching is that students sometimes just can't follow directions, no matter how clear you work to make them or how often you repeat them. I had one student who went up to the Getty for the Weegee show, decided she didn't like it, and wrote about some paintings instead. Nice piece about the paintings, but I wasn't teaching drawing.

There is sometimes surprise about having to write in a photography class, but I explain to the students that they will have to write no matter what they do, and, if they want to be photographers, they will have to learn to write captions, letters, proposals, etc. They need to get over whatever fears they have about putting things into words.

We lose our darkroom next month, prior to the start of the spring semester. I think it is a real shame, especially since students still want to take photography to learn how to process and print. We are going digital because the department is in Media Arts and the department head (a print journalist, not a photographer) believes that film is dead in the newsworld. He may be right, but there are things that can be taught so much better with analog equipment at a much more reasonable cost than in digital--at least right now. Unfortunately, when construction is complete on the campus, there will not be a replacement darkroom. As one of the art instructors here said to me "just because we have photography, we didn't stop teaching drawing or painting." I've read that a number of schools which made early decisions to go totally digital are desperately attempting to get funding to bring back film--and failing. I did a tour of Santa Monica College's excellent facilities and they have no intention of eliminating film. It also has excellent digital facilities. Good decision on the part of the department chair. I've already told a couple of potential students that they should look to Santa Monica if they want to experience the darkroom