Chez Kay
Andrew Kay is worried that photography faces state enforced censorship
Had there been anywhere to fall, I would have fallen, as I watched a news report from the north east saying that an amateur photographer had been approached by the police while taking photographs in a shopping precinct. As it was, I was sitting on the sofa enjoying a soothing choc ice – I know how to live!
Whatever happened to civil liberties? Hardly a moment goes by these days without us being monitored in some way by cameras, by our mobile phone signals or electronically by our use of credit and debit cards. But for a photographic artist to be confronted, and for his film to be confiscated seems to me a step too far.
“Big Brother is watching us for sure but he’s not that happy when we decide to stare back”
It reminded me of the school ban on video recording and picture taking at school plays and concerts. I readily accept that the threat of a picture of little Veronica falling into the evil hands of some paedophile is distressing, but is this all now going too far.
Journalistic and artistic photography is not far away from becoming an illegal pursuit if we allow these draconian measures to become the norm. We once all laughed at the idea of Native Americans fearing that a camera was stealing their soul. Now we are all being driven to believe that behind every kind of mechanical image-making moment there is the potential threat of subversive behaviour.
Of course there will always be the few whose actions are indeed perverted and subversive. Surely though, a blanket approach to the problem is simply censorship, even oppression and not tackling the real issue at all.
Without the freedom to create or record images, by whatever means, there would be no great art. If Henri Cartier-Bresson or Weegee had needed to fill in ‘model release forms’ they would have missed the moment and, we would in turn have missed out on some breathtaking and moving images, iconic reference points for times gone by, for lost moments, worlds, emotions…
The camera has been the single most valuable invention in the way we report and archive our world and the experiences that we have in that world. If from now on we need to seek permission to point and snap then we will be entering another dark age.
I also ask this; if we need to ask permission to take a holiday snap, who in turn gives the authorities the permission, that surely they must need, to monitor our every move on CCTV? Big Brother is watching us for sure but he’s not that happy when we decide to stare back.
