Downtown Lens: Your Right to Photograph

Thanks for this informative post. I often have problems with this. Another place where you have the right to take photos, but will often get told not to by uniformed police, are public meetings covered by the brown act. This includes any City Council meeting, or any City Council committee meeting. In fact - you may take photos as long as you are not disrupting the meeting.

If you are stopped you have the ability to render all decisions made during the period you were stopped in null, and every official who continues to participate is guilty of a misdemeanor. I was recently stopped by police from photographing a Santa Monica City Council meeting. When I learned about the right to photograph and emailed the city attorney - they were apologetic and the specific police officer apologized on my next visit. Score!

About 10 years I was going downtown to get some property ownership records from the tax records. I found they wanted to charge you quite a lot per copy if you wanted copies.

Rather than handwrite the names I decided to take my hi8 camera there another time and video tape the records. That way I could review them by simply capturing the video to my computer (this was before digital still cameras and photography film would have been way too expensive.)

They stopped me. Said I couldn’t do it. However I kept asking to see the higher ups and reminded them these were public records.

After a few days of calls I remember I was finally told by the some city legal spokesperson that yes I could video tape the public records. I asked for the persons name and number in case I had a problem when I went again. Sure enough when I got there the office personal said I couldn’t. So I called the official who had called me and the official spoke to them and they apologized and let me do it.

Saved me a bunch of money and educated some official clerks.

It is interesting however how officials always presume that you cannot photograph things.

Basically if you are allowed to see it with your eyes then you should be able to record or photograph it. Photography is just a time expanded extension of your eyes.

I’ve been hassled at 7th + Fig taking photos of their Christmas decorations, and I continued taking photos of the property from the sidewalk while their security guard tried to get me to stop. The “9/11 changed everything” argument won’t work on me.

The Heron Building security guard hassled me as well when I was grabbing photos to write about a new retail tenant. I was doing them a favor!

Yeah, it’s nice to know it isn’t just “me”.

I have the most issue with photographing “normal people”. Normal people are the best because downtown LA is the most insanely diverse group of “normal people” that exists so demographically close to each other. But try to photograph “normal people” and they feel scared - especially the immigrant population obviously. Then I feel bad for making them feel scared. I think documenting “real life” in photographs is one of the coolest things we can do.

Thank you so much for the “downtown lens”, its given great pointers and helped me remember to carry my camera around. I take a lot of random downtown photos now and my friends outside downtown have enjoyed viewing them on my facebook page - a simple way to explain to those in doubt about Downtown - that it has immense unique beauty that captures the essence of Los Angeles.

I also have a collection of “as-built” photos of many of these adaptive reuse loft buildings before we gutted them. I wish I could say they are more artistic. They were way too focused on documenting existing crappy conditions instead of taking the time to be more artful. (plus most are are on film now and who has time to deal with film).

I also think it it fantastic that there are SO many people capturing Downtown via lens. It is, with the exception of the 1920’s and mid 1970s, THE most interesting and vibrant time in Downtown. Let’s capture it!

There have been over the last 8 years special attention given to people who photgraph public transit facilities, i.e. trains and subways. Rent-a-cops around these places REALLY flip out (okay, not all of them, but a small minority) when they see railfans taking pictures. But, this too, is legal to take photos of. The key being PUBLIC transit facilities. I’ve had guards try to tell me that I can’t do it, it’s illegal, and I had to school them. Fortunately, I did not get arrested, but they still did not believe what I was saying. Sadly, this is just ignorance. Be on guard and stand up for your rights!

Critical infrastructure is hypersensitive to photography and other intelligence gathering for good reasons – every single terrorist attack has included onsite visual intelligence gathering of the intended target.

As someone who routinely explores Los Angeles for my images, what I keep in mind are two things:

1) Is the public (or their boss) watching and therefore security feels the need to be seen?

2) Am I in the wrong? That does happen – being on private property (including non-public sidewalks) without permission or realization you have strayed too far or being in a public space after posted closing hours.

You have to learn to respect security’s legitimate role in doing their job while knowing enough to know what the limits of those rights are. For example, even public property owned by municipalities has been licensed for commercial use. Essentially that means you may end up taking a photograph but not having the right to use it commercially. Artistically is, in most instances, a different matter altogether.

My advice is to inform the guards on private property what you intend to do in advance then if they object ask them where their property ends.

If the confrontation escalates once you’ve left their property, call the police and let them mediate the dispute. You’ll make it better for the next person that encounters that guard.

I carry a copy of the photographer’s rights. When I am asked not to photograph and I know the security is talking out of his ass I ask him if he wants to see a copy of the photographer’s rights… Most of the time they say it won’t be necessary. I find also that just sounding cooperative helps a lot. The typical ‘come on man.. just a couple of shots and I’m gone’ works . I laugh when they ask to see what I photograph. I never hand them anything.

Thanks, Dave. That’s very informative, particularly the photographer’s bill of rights. I also thought it was just me being paranoid and having bad experiences, but this is obviously a pretty widespread phenomenon. I’ve had problems outside the US Bank building, of course, and I always have arguments with security guards around Wells Fargo and the surrounding buildings on Bunker Hill. My solution is to go back later or the next day and get my shot. It’s the randomness of it all that gets to me. There’s no consistency: one minute, a group of tourists will walk by happily snapping away, and the next I get busted to taking one photo. From now on, I’ll just ask where the private property in question ends. At least now I know what my rights are. Much appreciated. As for the whole terrorist argument, ever heard of Google Earth and Google Images? Photos of Downtown landmarks are readily available online, if you want them.