The Terrorists and the Photographer


Parking, originally uploaded by alachia.

Part of my failed attempt to pick up my tickets for John Mayer this afternoon led me to the parking lot across from the event center. The whole two hours it took me to run errands that led nowhere due to the Industrial Waste department being closed and the idiot ticketmaster booth not having tickets ready would have been wasted but for photography.

As I was heading back to my car, I kept noticing really abstract things in the garage and started to take pictures of signs, construction joints, etc. I snapped some pics here and there but didn't dawdle much because I wanted to get back home.

I was about to get in my car when this guy comes running towards me waving his hands at me. I was already halfway in my car so I got out and approached him...all the while thinking I gotta be prepared to fight if this is a mugging.

The guy gets to me and says, "Hi, I'm Paul blahblah with the Risk Assessment Management team and I noticed you were taking pictures. What was that about?"

I kinda of laughed because I was so annoyed but in the best of spirits tried to explain to him how I love finding abstract art in construction methods and industrial mechanisms. I said I love Exit signs and stairwells and stained concrete.

He seemed to believe me and told me he just had to check to be sure although technically I'm not sure how you really assess risk by just listening to someone go on and on about photography and the art of modern construction.

Although there have been no terrorists attacks on US soil since 9/11, I still feel they have succeeded somehow. We lost our innocence as a society. Every person with a camera is documenting for terrorism. Every person in an airport drinking water is set to light the plane on fire.

We live terrorized at the thought that walking among us is someone ready to blow up half a city block. It's sad. And the worst part is that it won't end up being someone who carries around a camera like a tourist. The problem is, the person who does something like that... you'll never even see them.

And being cynical, I could have just seen myself being beaten and raped in that parking lot without a peep of assistance from Mr. Risk Assessment but pull out your Nikon and wham...they'll be at your feet. But this is the world we live in now.

I keep waiting for google earth and bing maps to team up so I can just explore the world outside in pure VR. No one cares if you document a VR reality. I actually had fun doing that a few days ago using google maps. I was able to look around and capture images of a VR projection of a real space at my own leisure and without worry that a cop would come chase me down. At least I didn't get frisked like my friend Jason for wanting to take pics of an awesome smoke stack.

1 comments:

tfangel said...

Thankfully no one has approached me yet, even though i've taken many pictures of the local power plant and damn, but i have had police cars cruise slowly by me and shine the light on me. Oddly enough while shooting late night long exposure and one of a field with nothing but snow on it. Maybe it's because it's a small town or something, but the 'photography is not a crime' group on flickr has me waiting for it.

I do wonder though if a terrorist was really photographing things, wouldn't they be more subtle or ready with an explanation?