Were we
too kind
to the Poles?
Norway’s undying
gratitude
to Shetland
With one final
shove, the bin
clicked shut
The tribe:
Rangers and
Scottish literature
Alasdair McKillop reflects on his recent interview with novelist Alan Bissett
Get SR free in
your inbox three
times a week
Click here
Today’s banner
Rubbish in the river Clyde at the Broomielaw
Photograph by
Islay McLeod
The Cafe
The Cafe is our readers’ forum. Send your contribution to islay@scottishreview.net
See me?
I’m a photographer,
not a terrorist
I would urge Jill Stephenson (30 May) and any other photographers (Islay!) to join the ‘I’m a Photographer, Not a Terrorist’ group. (photographernotaterrorist.org)
Unfortunately rail companies are within their rights as property owners to ban photography on their property, but it certainly smacks of Soviet-era Russia. I had the same nonsense in St Mungo’s Cathedral on a week day, when I was informed that it is a ‘government building’. Using a tripod was my crime. Somehow it transformed me, at least in the eyes of the uniformed Jobsworth, into a ‘professional photographer’. I needed a permit, he said. What about the 80 or 90-strong Japanese tour group milling around me, all clicking away? Oh, they are amateurs.
When I pointed out that an elder, wearing tails, on a Sunday afternoon had given me permission to take photographs using my tripod, he responded that the elder had no business giving me permission. He blustered on to tell me that on Sundays it was a church, but on week days it was a government building. I wound up phoning the government body which controls our historic buildings and lodged a formal complaint.
However all credit to the Strathclyde police force. Taking photographs in George Square in Glasgow of the Christmas lights and the crowds at the funfair set up there, two policemen very obligingly moved out of the way when they saw I was trying to take a timed exposure with a tripod. I suspect it would have been a very different story in London.
As a card-carrying member of ‘I’m a photographer, Not a Terrorist’ group, I am tempted to set the challenge of taking images of the MI5 HQ, or any sign saying ‘Photography is strictly forbidden here’. Taking photographs either of the security guards around city buildings, or the buildings themselves, is always good for a call to the Metropolitan Police, who pounce on you as if you were a committee member of Al Qaeda. A tripod has them positively quivering with excitement – forget that the average mobile phone is far more discreet – this has to be done with the largest camera you can find with a positively phallic lens mounted on it, and a tripod which would comfortably support a theodlite in a hurricane.
Until I read Jill’s article I had thought we were a little more sensible in Scotland. Disillusion is setting in.
James McNie
If the Glasgow underground is a public place, then it is perfectly legal to take photographs. Only if it is possible to deem it to be private space might it be possible for the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport to try and prohibit anyone from doing so. The same is true for any station and the British Transport Police are almost certainly exceeding their authority. There were some cases in the south of England not so long ago where the police had been less than gentle with at least one photographer taking pictures of some sort of rammy in the street. I think they deleted his pictures but they were challenged and lost.
David Grant
Can I be the first pedant to point out that the photograph accompanying Jill Stephenson’s piece about ‘Stalinism on the Underground’ will remain perfectly legal. The photo shows the low-level train station at Glasgow Central which is not part of the Glasgow underground system
Jim Bauld
Book a table in The Cafe. Email islay@scottishreview.net
website design by Big Blue Dogwebsite development by NSD Web