The photograph above is entitled Delayed and is by Ryan Coleman. It is used in accordance with his Creative Commons License. The photo above was taken (in 2007) roughly where I was standing yesterday afternoon.
Yesterday, after our excursion to the Exhibition, we took a streetcar to Union Station to catch the train home. While in Union Station, I stepped away from Vivian and the grandparents to look at the board announcing when our GO Train would board, I happened to take out my camera and snap a picture of the crowd streaming through the station. I wasn’t thinking much about it; I thought the picture was interesting, and might be good for a project that I’m working on (I’ll tell you more about this some other day).
As I was doing this, three men walked past me, wearing suits with a somewhat security-uniform feel, who were talking about protecting public places against terrorism. The head of the group, seeing my camera, turned to me and politely said, “Excuse me. There are no photos allowed down here.”
Now, the guy was polite. And, technically speaking, I was in the fare paid zone for GO Transit, which is something other than public property. So I politely and truthfully replied, “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” And I put the camera away. He turned to walk away, as he was clearly in a hurry, but he stopped long enough to ask me, “What were you taking pictures of? The trains?”
“No,” I replied. Again, truthfully. “The streams of people.”
“Oh,” he said. “Yeah, that’s definitely prohibited.” And with that, he left.
As I said, the man was polite. And I didn’t want to make a scene. It seemed neither fair to the guy, nor wise. But I cannot help but be disturbed by the conversation. It seems that we have lost something if we cannot innocently take pictures in public areas, even though I know why we should be concerned about the not so innocent taking pictures in the same public areas.
Although there were no notices to this effect that I could see, taking pictures in the concourse area of Union Station is probably prohibited because Union Station is a busy transportation hub, and thus a potential target for terrorism. I’m forced to ask: the next time I come to downtown Toronto with a camera, where exactly am I allowed to take pictures? And where am I not?
August 25, 2009 9:18 AM
Hi James,
Sorry to hear about your experience. The suspicion directed toward photographers and photography has long been a sore spot for me. In Ottawa, where I live and work, amateur transit photography is severely hindered by the pervasiveness of such suspicion, fuelled as it is by ignorant good intention on the part of transit staff and the general public, and substantiated by an unreasonable and ambiguously worded transit by-law concerning photography. What we have is a situation in which photography’s many valuable social, cultural, and historical uses are overshadowed and even delegitimized in the face of fear.
But I think more basic question that needs to be asked is: what exactly is the origin of the perceived correlation between photography and terrorism? Has there ever been any substantial justification for this connection, or is it a fanciful product of paranoid imagination, which no responsible citizen dare question? Surely — surely — any information that is supposedly being obtained and disseminated via openly photographing something could and would be obtained and disseminated by other, far less conspicuous means.
Best wishes
Steve
August 25, 2009 9:58 AM
I wonder if there really is any regulation on the books about taking pictures. More than once I’ve been shut down for taking pictures in transit stations when I knew it was entirely legal even though the security I encountered insisted that it was not. When I’ve planned ahead (like the last time I was in NYC) I actually printed out a copy of the relevant legal text that specifically allowed me to take pictures.
Mike
August 25, 2009 7:39 PM
Sorry to hear about that ridiculous situation, James. I spent most of the summer in Europe (primarily Austria), and I took numerous pictures in train stations in Innsbruck, Zurich, and Munich. Why, I even took some pictures of Innsbruck buses! Setting aside that Innsbruck with a population a fraction of Toronto’s has a much larger, more pleasant, and much much busier station, I was never approached about taking pictures. I’d argue that Munich Hauptbahnhof is a more likely target for terrorism than the smaller Union Station, but then a very low risk remains very low even if it’s doubled. Yet I have pictures of trains, stores, and, of course, people from there. I’m not clear why that would help any kind of terrorist plot, though.
August 27, 2009 1:31 AM
People should be able to take pictures all they want — especially for private pleasure. That’s ridiculous. I’m glad the guy was polite and all, but - it’s all lame, and it’s pretty sad.
August 29, 2009 9:28 AM
They need to take a page out of the book of mainline railways in England. It’s nice to know at least some railways recognize the value of photography on their systems:
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/777.aspx
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/passengerservices/guidelinesforrailenthusiasts.html
August 31, 2009 1:30 PM
The same thing happened to me at Milton GO Station a couple of months ago; I was waiting for a ride and taking some pictures of the place. I’d just taken a picture of the bike shelter they have there when a GO Transit employee asked me stop. I stopped, but seriously - a bike shelter? Who makes these rules? Do they even exist? The first chance I had I went to GO Transit’s website, and it mentions nothing about photography being prohibited in the system.
September 5, 2009 11:38 PM
Ironically, I was in Ottawa in the spring of 2002, less than 9 months after 9/11. Right across from the National Art Gallery was the US Embassy, an imposing fortress of a structure surrounded by concrete bunkers and barbed wire fence.
I wanted to take a picture of it, but wasn’t sure how the heavily-armed guard at the gate would take it. So, hesitantly, I approached with my camera visible and asked, “is it alright to take a picture of the embassy?”
“Oh sure!” was his friendly response. “In fact, if you go over to that church on the corner, you should get a good shot of the whole building.”
It was very surreal.