Making Images

The Sunday Times, March 7, 2010I work for a British company. I like it and I like the fact that I get to go to the UK several times a year. Because I like to know what's going on in other parts of the world, and because it's much easier to get an opinion from other places outside the U.S., I find and keep track of information as needed. In preparation for a trip to the UK next week I went looking to see what's going on.

I found this! Scary, frightening, disillusioning, and a bunch of other dramatic words I can't think of at the moment. My recent trips across the pond have been so jam packed I've not taken a camera. This trip may have the same result but for a much different reason.  

I ride trains in the UK. It's one of the things I love about the place. And I've taken images at King's Cross mentioned in the article. I've not been approached but I'm also discreet, a bit worried and cautious and the images reflect that. It's why they've never been seen.

This will be a jam packed trip as well, but I planned to take one of the Leica twins ( as Jordan would say) for a personal record. But this article gives me honest to goodness reason for pause. Should I? Shouldn't I? It can't really happen can it? It happens to others but not to me, right?

Thinking about it today I plan to take a camera and make images to my hearts content. Mostly because this just pisses me off. I know it's not my country and I have no right to condemn them. It's not them as much as it is the general nature of society today that really pisses me off. It just seems to be taken to another level in the UK at the current time.

My buddy Dan put up a tweet to this article and had some comments on facebook. There were several good comments but one in particular struck a cord.  It was by Ana June and she said, “It’s not just about photography...I think it’s about how we all relate to one another. We are losing the ability to negotiate with strangers. Everyone seems to be afraid of everyone else, particularly where children are involved."

There may be other reasons that this issue seems to be manifesting in this way.  I think I'll noodle on them next week as I make the trip. But Ana's words seem to sum it up. We've been made to be afraid of everything simply because we accept what is told to us at face value... no thought, no questions, how dare you challenge a notion in this day and age. And with children, well, I won't even go there for the moment.

It's a scary time but not for the reasons actions like this are trying to prevent. It's a scary time because we look at everyone so suspiciously with no real solid foundation as to why that is. Is everyone an enemy? Should we all feel safer because we are protected if images aren't allowed to be made anymore? Should camera manufacturer's be forced to stop producing the very product that can be used in a terrorist attack? Would that make us safer? Or are we just so freaking paranoid that having every Tom, Dick and Harriet should feel the need to shout to the skies that there's a suspicious camera toting numnuts down on the pier and I'm afraid for my life.

Update on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 by Larry D. Hayden

I let Ana know I quoted her from the facebook thread.  She was kind enough to read the blog and let me know she was quoting the article. I missed that and am thankful Ana set me straight on the facts.