I was talking with someone the other day about photography and terrorism plots. I’ve written about this before. And now that I’m using a large format camera, it seems even more ridiculous that someone in plain-view with a camera should be worthy of suspicion.
Except that it’s nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn’t photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn’t photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn’t photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren’t being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn’t known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about — the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 — no photography.”
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackWhat the Rent-a-Jesus-Freak told Jeff is not a product of post-9/11. I was walking arounf Post Office Square with my 4×5 Crown Graphic and gadget bag one sunny Saturday in the early 1970s, shooting pretty pictures. At that time, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston was still in the granite building that now houses the Langham Meridian Hotel. The light on the granite block wall was perfectly slanted, so I set my tripod up to shoot the side of the building.
As I recall after lo many moons, this uniformed guy rushed out the building and asked what I thought I was doing. I told him I was taking pictures of walls as part of a photo project.
“You can’t photograph that. Do you know what that building is?” insisted the guard.
“Actually no, I don’t. Does it matter?”
“It sure does. You can’t photograph the Federal REserve Bank without permission.”
So I said, “I didn’t know that. But would it be ok if I moved real close and just shot one of the blocks?” I rejoined.
He said he guessed it wouldn’t be a problem, but I was still taking a chance. Anyway, that’s what I did, as he watched. It was a nice photo, actually. I thought about mailing a print to the Fed after scribbling on it “Weak spot here” with an arrow pointing to a corner of the block in the middle of the picture, but I never did.
It’s comforting in an odd way to know that the Bush administration isn’t responsible for all this sort of looniness.
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