An ill-advised resident of Paddington, NSW decided he’d enforce some vigilante justice on the Sniper after observing what he perceived to be a criminal act. As I was taking a candid photograph I could hear him approaching from a short distance shouting:
“Hey! … Hey! … HEY!!!!”
I pretty much knew what was coming and completely ignored him until after I got the shot desired. When I lowered the viewfinder I found him approaching me from the side, and he seemed pretty ticked-off, perhaps at the fact I ignored his attempt at halting my actions. So he gets up-close and starts to go off:
“Are you taking photos on people in the street!?”
Calmly I reply: “Yes.”
He gets a bot more agitated - “With their Consent!?”
“No, without their consent.”
Waiving and pointing his finger at me he then explodes in an outrage – and I let him finish every last word before responding.
“What you are doing is illegal! – It’s against the law and you should be arrested!! I’m gonna give you a chance to walk away – stop what you are doing and leave this area now before I call the police and have you arrested!”
Possibly observing my reaction has pretty much been null – not even a facial expression, he calms down a bit, looks me up and down (I was wearing a suit) and continues to say:
“Listen, I can see you’re a gentleman and will do as I say – now I’ve asked you politely to stop what you’re doing and just move along.”
So I finally break it to him:
“What I’m doing is not illegal – I’m actually an artist and take candid photographs of people in public, documenting urban life.”
“Without their knowledge or consent!?”
“Yes, without their knowledge or consent”
“And this is legal, here in Australia!?”
“Yes, in most westernized countries, including Australia”
“No! – what you are doing is wrong – when you take someone’s photo you are taking something away from them, for your own benefit – and what do they gain? I live here, I am a resident of Paddington and I do not approve. You tell whoever gave you the authority that I, DON’T, AGREE!”
“Well, the law is the law, you should do some research on it yourself – and you should have a look at some of my work” – in saying this I offered him my business card, which he refused to accept (my critics never do) – but I did notice him take a second to read it before declining.
He slowly exited the conversation, but while walking away and turned over his shoulder to say: “well, I asked you politely and know you’ll be a gentleman — that’s a nice camera, you wouldn’t want …” and stops short of verbalizing what was possibly meant to be a passive threat.
As he left the scene I hollered back loud and clear: “I’m not gonna stop — this is what I do.”
Analyzing the situation — here we have an individual who strongly feels its his given right to demand no photos of people be taken in his neighborhood without their consent. On one hand, I usually avoid Sniping in residential areas – having a personal view that a home extends to its immediate surroundings, where a certain degree of privacy (even in public) is warranted. On the other hand, if your home happens to be situated on or near a busy city street such as a shopping district — its immediate area falls within the boundaries of my playground. As for the threat — those I generally don’t accept without good reason to believe my life is endangered by a power of God or equal forces.
Paddington is definitely a suburb of Sydney that should be recorded and depicted through the natural state of its people and I’ll certainly be there again to make that happen.
Below are a small handful of photographs captured in Paddington.
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