Shutter Mike Photography

In our post-9/11 world photography news has been filled with stories of the rights of photographers, amateur and professional alike, being questioned and tested.  Security guards and police officers stopping photographers everywhere from shopping malls to train stations claiming photography is banned is nothing new.  If you know your rights as a photographer and have the ability to remain calm and polite these incidents are usually no more than an uninformed “officer” and an inconvenience.

However, there are some legitimate bans on photography.  The latest comes from Washington DC and the National Archives.  Effective February 24th tourists will no longer be able to take photographs inside the National Archives, the home of the US Constitution and other historically and politically priceless documents.

This has some photographers up in arms as their right to photograph and even document these documents is being squashed.  But according to the National Archives, the reasons for the ban are not “terrorist” related as is often cited by as the reason for stopping photographers in other public places.  Being hundreds of years old, the documents housed in the Archives are obviously in a fragile state to say the least.  Up until recently they were housed behind filtered glass to protect them from the building lights and the unknowing or delinquent tourist who ignored the “no flash photography” signs.  But the filters made the documents have a greenish hue which, again according to the Archives, diminished the tourist experience.  So they removed the filtered glass, placed the filters on the lights themselves and banned all photography.  Easier than policing the few tourists who could not or would not comply with the rules I suppose.

In the case of this photography ban, we have the point-and-shoot, sock-and-sandal tourist who does not understand they are part of the bigger world and their actions impact others to blame.  I understand that the National Archives are doing their job to protect America’s priceless historical documents.  Unfortunately the amateur photography is a casualty.  For professionals and the media arrangements can still be made to photograph within the Archives.  The rest of us can grab one of the free pre-printed photos of the constitution and make mental pictures.