By
Chip Py on June 29th, 2007
I am a photographer. On September June 12 of this year, two representatives from the Peterson Companies, managers of the trademarked Downtown Silver Spring, asked me not to take pictures on Ellsworth Drive. At that time, the representatives misrepresented the facts regarding ownership of Ellsworth Drive, and made deliberately misleading statements over the questions that I raised regarding my First Amendment rights in a seemingly public place.
Immediately following this incident, I wrote a letter to the County Executive and to each of the members of the county council. I posted this letter on the popular photography site, Flickr.
My letter raised the question as to where the public’s civil rights end and the corporation’s privacy rights begin when there is a publicly funded/privately partnered development, in which public monies and land are developed, and then turned over to private corporations. These rights, I reasoned, not only included photography, but on a much more important note, the freedom to petition, campaign, assemble and protest, rights guaranteed by our Constitution. I asked the County Executive and members of the county council to begin a dialog about this important issue with the Peterson Companies.
In the last few weeks my letter, picked up off the Flickr site, has enjoyed wide circulation on the internet. Additionally, every major newspaper in this area reported on the issue and the questions I raised. My story was carried on national TV and syndicated public radio. Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher took a stance in his column last Thursday, which continued in his on-line chat room that afternoon. Local Listservs in the area are abuzz. Members of several prominent Blogs and newly formed photo rights groups in the area came together to organize a photo outing and protest in downtown Silver Spring this coming Independence Day to highlight the true issue here.
While council member Marc Erlich has spoken about this in the press, and I have heard from staff members and insiders that this has been hot topic in the county offices in Rockville the last two weeks, many council members and the county executive have yet to weigh in on the issue.
I am growing concerned that our elected representatives have not yet taken a decisive stance over the growing concern that in downtown Silver Spring, our civil rights may be in jeopardy.
This morning the Peterson Companies, managers and developers of the trademarked “Downtown Silver Spring,” issued a statement. They will allow photography and video taping on Ellsworth Avenue. They make provision, however, that the arrangement can be rescinded. The new policy makes no statement regarding the important issues that I have raised.
In my opinion, the Peterson Companies is missing the point. Not one of the media outlets covered this story out of a concern for the photo enthusiast. This issue has exploded in the minds and the hearts of the people hearing my story, because they fear that civil liberties are being trammeled in public/private partnerships.
With many more of these public/private partnerships now under consideration not only here in Montgomery County but also in nearby College Park and around the country these are questions that deserve to be addressed by not only by our citizens but by our public officials too.
Please join us at noon on the fourth of July. We will gather at the green turf to let our county officials know that the people of Silver Spring will not have their rights under minded and restricted in our town.
Posted in Why I Participate | 5 Comments »
By
Chip Py on June 27th, 2007
I am a longtime resident of Silver Spring. Back in the mid nineties through my involvement with the Greater Silver Spring Chamber of Commerce and what was then called the Silver Spring Urban District, I participated in many of the activities leading up to the development of the new Downtown Silver Spring.
I have many hobbies and one of them is Photography. One could describe the kind of pictures that I take as “Urban Landscape”. Through the popular photography website Flickr, I participate in a photography group known as “DC Neighborhoods” where we pick a neighborhood, photograph its character and ambiance, and then post it to this site to share with the group and others.
Last Tuesday, I went to downtown Silver Spring, had lunch, and then took out my camera and standing on Ellsworth Avenue, I began taking shots of the buildings with the blue sky and clouds as a backdrop. Almost immediately, a security guard approached and told me “there was no picture taking allowed in Downtown Silver Spring.” What do you mean” I said, “I am on a city street, in a public place, taking pictures is a right that I have protected by the first amendment.” The guard told me to report to the management office.
There, Stacy Horan informed me that Downtown Silver Spring including Ellsworth Avenue is private property, not a public place, and subject to the rules of the Peterson Companies. They have a no photography policy to “Protect them from people who might want to use the photographs as part of a story in which they could write bad things about us.”
And she told me that many of the chain stores in Downtown Silver Spring don’t what their “concepts” to be photographed for security reasons. There was also a concern that I might sell my photographs and that is not allowed. I told her that I was well aware of my rights to take pictures on public property, any pictures that I take I have a right to sell, and questioned how they could have a policy that limits our individual rights when Downtown Silver Spring was built with public money.
I found out later that it is true Ellsworth Avenue was turned over to Peterson Companies through the process of condemnation. So now I’m wondering: If this is a $1.2 billion public/private investment as stated in Tuesday’s New York Times article about the downtown renaissance, where do the public’s rights end and the private corporations policies takeover??
In discussing this with fellow Silver Spring residents I have been told that we are not allowed to campaign, petition or protest in Downtown Silver Spring. These are basic American values, true to our beliefs, and in the Downtown Silver Spring they are banned?? In this age of eroding individual rights should the people of Silver Spring accept this??
It is my understanding that the county continues to spend public funds promoting Downtown Silver Spring and I wouldn’t discourage this, but I think that the county should have a conversation with the Peterson Companies about their policies in regards to these basic American values and freedoms.
I don’t think that the people of this county are willing to trade their rights of free speech or the right to petition assemble and protest in their own downtown for a Starbucks or a Potbelly’s.
Posted in Why I Participate | 2 Comments »
By
katmere on June 27th, 2007
I created DC Photo Rights in response to the numerous instances of harassment local area photographers have cited. I am an amateur photographer who has been shooting for about two years. I have found the DC amateur photographer society, especially through Flickr, to be a very supportive atmosphere. The metropolitan area itself, however, seems to pose a constant challenge, especially to beginners.
The specific impetuous was a photographer, Chip Py, who was harassed for taking photos from the street in Downtown Silver Spring, MD. This struck a chord with me. I live and work in Silver Spring, and I have been a supporter of the development projects in the downtown area. These projects have faced some resistance, and I was saddened to hear that the downtown area that I often defend is associated with this sort of behavior.
I am specifically interested, also, in the role that security guards at Federal Buildings play in this. Many incorrectly inform photographers that photos are illegal. While this is prevalent with security guards everywhere, I find it more disturbing when Federal security guard do this; many people regard their claims of protecting national security interests more seriously. And of course, in a few cases, photos of Federal buildings are not allowed. So this often leave photographers, amateurs especially, on uncertain grounds where they easily become victims of harassment.
Posted in Why I Participate | 2 Comments »
By
cweaver on June 26th, 2007
The rights of photographers are slowly being eroded, bit by bit. To use an old simile, it’s like flies eating a racehorse. Sure, the flies only take a nibble here and there but if the horse didn’t have that giant tail to shoo them off with, they could very well eat him up.
It’s the same thing with our rights. Little by little, we are being more and more restricted in how we can express ourselves and what we can record with our cameras. Some people are saying this particular issue isn’t a big one and are questioning whether we want to fight this battle.
Wars are won and lost on the battlefield. If we do nothing to support rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution and the Supreme Court, we may as well not have those rights. The freedoms we have are not granted to us by the government; they simply have not yet been taken away. They are the DMZ and up for grab if we don’t stand up to fight for them.
July 4th is the perfect day to come out in a show of unity and stand together to celebrate the right to photograph in public. If we don’t do this now, we will be fighting something else more drastic later on.
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By
tbridge on June 26th, 2007
I’m not a protestor by nature. I don’t carry signs. I don’t chant catchy slogans. I don’t give up sleep to protest on the steps of the Supreme Court or at City Hall. Most of that just passes me by. But I’ll be there on the Fourth of July to exercise my right to photography in a public place. Why? What’s so different this time? That’s a good question.
As part of a program in Science and Technology Studies, I got to read Martin Heidegger last summer. He’s a bit of a bore, and the people who did his translation pretty much suck at writing, but he has this basic important concept called dasein, or “Being-in-the-world.” Heidegger argues that human beings cannot be viewed except through the context that they share. Capturing that context, that essential viewpoint by way of photography becomes part of Being in the World.
It’s an expression of self and viewpoint that should not be obstructed in the commons that are owned by the Government.Clearly there are lines of demarcation that exist to protect Secret from Public, but in this case, there’s no reason for Ellsworth Drive to be a point for harassment. Thus, I will be out with my 10D and my 50mm prime lens to snap some shots of the buildings at Ellsworth Drive. Come help contextualize the world with me.
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By
Don on June 26th, 2007
There’s a number of things that get together to make this a big issue for me, though I think any one of them would do.
Top of the list has to be my concerns about public-private partnerships. When an organization enters into a deal with the government I think it’s easy for them to forget who their customer really is. It’s not whoever happens to be the politician in charge that day, it’s the citizenry whose land they’re using and money they’re spending. When a group like Peterson gets the use of some prime land for one dollar a year I feel pretty cheated when they try to limit my rights on that property. Someone who pays so little to use the public’s property is for all intents and purposes a guest, and they should treat us with the same respect we would expect from any guest in our home.
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By
wayan on June 25th, 2007
Back in 1997, I was arrested for photography in Moscow. While you might expect that in Russia, we live in a country founded on freedoms of expression, one of which the Supreme Court has now enshrined as photography.
Unrestricted photography by private citizens has played an integral role in protecting the freedom, security, and well-being of all Americans by contributing to improvements in civil rights, labor practices, and police activity.
Yet American photographers are being stopped, harassed, and even intimidated when expressing their freedom to photograph under the guise of “security” and misguided fears about terrorism. Even when the proliferation of digital camera and camera phones are actually preventing crimes, catching criminals, and generally preserving public order.
I was recently harassed for taking photographs on a public street in Washington DC, and have often be questioned when photographing WMATA.
And now a private company who took over a public street in Silver Spring, a DC suburb, has banned photography and hassled a photographer who tried to take photos.
To me that is one step too far. One photographer harassment too much. And its time for a show of rights. Its time to join Metroblogging DC in a declaration of photographic freedom, a Silver Spring Photo Outing to remind Washingtonians that photography is NOT a crime.
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