The Picture Police

Do festivals like Pitchfork and Lollapalooza have the right to restrict photography in a public park?

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/pitchfork-lollapalooza-photography-public-property-laws/Content?oid=2165520

The article talked about a fan who bought a ticket to Pitchfork, and was refused admittance because he brought his camera bag with him. When the guards searched the bag, they stated:

‘Bad news. It’s not your lucky day.’”

The guard was referring to the Nikon D5000 camera with detachable lens in Vaca’s bag. It turned out Pitchfork had a rule—no “professional” cameras, no detachable lenses. “I didn’t know that rule,” says Vaca. “Or believe me, I wouldn’t have brought that lens.”

He told his girlfriend to go in, and proceeded to walk to a deserted area, where he threw his camera bag over the fence to her. He got caught!! She was kicked out, and they both went home. GOD FORBID he had taken a picture of a band that day- maybe the world would have come to an end.

The article went on to quote Mike Reed, the  director of the festival, who said:

“All artists have different policies of how they’d like to be represented, photographically speaking, and most only want high-quality photographs coming from approved media outlets. Point & Shoot cameras allow fans to get the shots that they want of themselves and the artists they’ve come to see, but don’t allow high-quality photos they could later sell to profit off the band’s appearance.”

So many things wrong with that statement!!

1. Anyone who reads this blog regularly remembers me describing the scrum of “Approved” photographers who were ushered in to the photo pit to shoot one song of Pavement and then asked to leave the premises. No good pictures could have come out of that!

2. So Mike is saying that the only pictures that the bands want taken are really lousy ones with point and shoot cameras!

3. As the article goes on, the subject turns to whether the festival has a right to disallow freedom of speech on public property that they are renting from the city for the weekend. Many competing viewpoints are discussed, but the only point not discussed is:

Since when did we become the enemy? Why is it that the only people that have the equipment and the ability are not allowed access? What are the legal rights if the event is free on public property? I believe that they can restrict access to the barricaded photo pit, but I wonder what would happen if a group of photographers were to go to a free public event, get there early with reading materials and food, and set up right in front of the stage with all of their professional gear and shoot the performance without asking for a photo pass.

Two nights ago, I went down to the Chicago Jazz Festival to photograph Ahmad Jamal. Upon arriving, I was given a photo pass and told that I would be allowed to shoot the first seven minutes of his set from a seat in the front row, which had been reserved for photographers. There were several open seats in the second row. I thought about moving back a row, and removing my photo pass and shooting the whole set, but decided not to cause a scene and instead left and went to a really cool party!

4.  Recently an English blog I read had an interesting article:

http://smallaperture.com/what-is-a-professional-camera/

A writer went to a music festival that posted these rules:

‘Cameras are normally permitted for personal use. Cameras with detachable telephoto lenses will not be allowed through the three arena entrances. Professional cameras and video/audio equipment are strictly prohibited. Live video/audio recordings made without the permission of the artiste/promoter are prohibited.’

He went on to bring up a great point. Have they checked out the zoom capabilities on a high-end compact camera?

Last summer, Stevie Wonder played a free concert in downtown Chicago on public land. Photographers were told that they could only shoot one minute of the show, and needed a signed letter from the publication that they were working for to be given a pass. The daily papers said they weren’t going to cover the show, so, of course they were allowed to not sign any contracts, but still only allowed to shoot for one minute (Ironic, because both papers sent freelancers, who could then turn around and send their images to any agency they wanted as soon as they were published!)

Anyway, a friend of mine was riding his motorcycle downtown with his Canon G10 in his pocket. He parked and walked into the park. He found a seat in about the 10^th row, took out his camera, and proceeded to shoot anything he wanted. With the excellent zoom lens and the ability to shoot RAW files, he was able to shoot magazine quality photos throughout the concert!

So maybe we should all go out and buy “Amateur” cameras! It would certainly be good for my back!!

On one end, you have the Strokes, a bunch of rich upper east side kids who, had a buzz  around their first album, and as far as I can tell a few charted hits, and then kind of disappeared, sort of reforming for Lalapalooza, probably never to be heard from again. Are they the Beatles or the Stones?

On the other end is a Madonna wannabe with 17 trucks full of equipment (including one semi trailer for her clothes). Minimal talent, and a penchant for self promotion! The most telling part of the article talked about how a great portion of the crowd started leaving after the first few songs of her set. Funny, I don’t remember many people leaving before the end of a Stones show!

Oh well, guess it is the perspective of youth!

Speaking of youth, I just received three CD’s in the mail that I did the cover photos for this year.

1. Pinetop Perkins and Willie Smith for Telark. Pinetop is a very young 97 years old, Willie is a youngster at 74 years old. Both played for many years with the Muddy Waters Blues band. They still perform and records regularly, and record in a lot of different bands. Willie’s son Kenny is one of the most consistent drummers in the blues!

2. James Cotton for Alligator. A very young 75 years old! I have photographed James for three different Alligator covers through the years, and he is always a great guy to hang with!

3. Dave Specter for Fret 12. The youngster of the bunch, Dave has been recording for only 20 years! He also co-owns one the coolest new venues in the Chicago area (SPACE in Evanston, Il.) Great place to hear music, great pizza in the front room, and a full service recording studio in the back!

Speaking of youngsters, I just photographed a new news team for the CBS affiliate in Chicago. Billboards went up this week around the area for the new team, both more than 70 years old, but legends in the Chicago news business. Welcome back, Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson.

Saturday 8/14:

Spent a lovely evening with John Mayer and the Avett Brothers. Spectacular show, great lighting, and John is playing guitar better than ever. He just bought a new camera, so we discussed RAW versus JPEG at length before the show. A great way to spend a Saturday night.

Tuesday 8/17:

OZZFEST!!! Made me feel young again. A little bit deaf, too. I was there to photograph Ozzy, but someone backstage asked me to shoot a band called Nonpoint, and I am glad I did- great band and a lot of dreadlocks flying through the air. I was just going to relax till Ozzy- but then Rob Halford walked by, and I couldn’t resist. Arguably the greatest metal singer around, and one of the nicest guys in the business. So I got off my butt for some kickass metal. Then came the grand finale. The Prince of Darkness. As usual the show started with video clips of Ozzy mixed into popular culture (Twilight and Jersey Shore). Then he appeared on stage, looking and sounding better than he has in years, spraying the audience with both water and foam. I managed to keep my camera dry this time, and got some great shots.

Thursday 8/19:

Went to New York for the day to see my friend Benj’s photography show opening at Morrison Hotel Gallery. Benj is the bass player from O.A.R. and has been shooting for as long as I have been working with the band and this was his first show. Great time catching up with him and the rest of the band. Also met legendary music photographer Mick Rock for the first time. Wacky, great guy!

Check out Benj’s work at http://www.benjgershman.com/

Friday 8/20

Got up in the morning and flew back home to get ready for SLAYER and MEGADEATH. Yikes!! Louder than a jet plane, amazing lights and sound and a sold out crowd of metal maniacs! A perfect Friday night. Was talking to Kerry King (Slayer guitarist) before the show and he was telling me about almost losing all their gear in a tornado the month before in Europe and them saw and heard a great 3 hours of music. (sounded like we were in a tornado most of the night!

Saturday 8/21:

Spent the evening with my friends the Black Crowes, who have slowly evolved into one of the greatest live touring bands on the planet. Every time they come to town, they seem to have added another person to the band (they are up to 9 now). The music, now a mix of acoustic and electric, runs the entire gamut of their catalog, along with some tasty covers (Do Right Woman was especially great).

Finally the week ended and I went home and slept for about 10 hours! (Although if this kind of access was available all the time, I could get used to it!

Photographers covering musician Jay-Z’s recent appearance at the Wireless Festival in London were apparently asked to sign away their copyright to the multi-millionaire rap artist. Press Gazette has been given a “photographer’s release and grant of rights form” which a photographer, who asked not to be named, was handed at the recent festival.

In the form photographers are asked to sign away their copyright in exchange for having the right to photograph the rapper, whose real name is Shawn Carter.

The form states: “You agree that any and all photographs and images captured or obtained on any media, known or future, are not for commercial sale, or distribution in any form, except for use in the below mentioned publication. “You further agree that this permission is for a one-time use only, unless agreed in writing and attached to this document.All copyrights and other intellectual property rights shall be entirely Artist’s property; free of any claims whatsoever by you or any person, firm or corporation.”

The article goes on to say that most journalists think that the contract is legally unenforceable. I agree with them on this point, but that is not the point. More than likely Jay-Z is not going to sue some poor starving photographer because he sold a picture of him to the wrong magazine. First off, he would look like an idiot and a bully. Secondly, he would have to prove damages (basically having to say that a picture of him in a publication would hurt his career, and unless the picture showed him doing something really stupid, would probably be impossible for him to prove.)

The article goes on to say:

National Union of Journalists freelance officer John Toner, who represents photographers for the union, advises members never to sign such forms.

He said: “Our advice would be that it’s not worth anyone’s time to work on the basis of this contract. We have devised our own contract which photographers are starting to use with some success.”

“Management are ripping off photographers and trying to get them to agree to terms that they would never expect for their own artists.

“If a photographer is confronted by one of these contracts we would urge them to contact their publisher as a first port of call, because they don’t want photographers signing these contracts either.”

This brings forth another point. If one is working for a publication, the photographer has no right to sign their name to a contract representing the publication without the publications attorneys looking it over and signing off on it. Also, most large publications (newspapers and magazines) expressly say to their photographers that they cannot sign any kind of contract on the publications behalf.

Final thought: Someone wrote a comment to this writers post. He had a very funny idea- Photographers should present musicians with a contract stating that if the photographer downloads music or buys a CD produced by the artist, the photographer then has rights over that music. It’s the same thing…

Last final thought: I recently heard that Iron Maiden, a band that used to love having people photograph them, now has a similar contract.

Last week a friend of mine sent me an article from an English website run by EPUK  (Editorial photographers United Kingdom and Ireland). The article was written by Neil Burgess, who runs his own picture agency, NB Pictures. In it he says:

Magazines and newspapers are no longer putting any money into photojournalism. They will commission a portrait or two. They might send a photographer off with a writer to illustrate the writer’s story, but they no longer fund photojournalism. They no longer fund photo-reportage.

Even when photographers create brilliant stories and the magazine editors really want to publish them, they cannot pay a realistic price for the work.

Last week Newsweek published a three page story about the Huffington Post, saying that they may have figured out the future of journalism.

Seems to be what they have figured out is this: Steal content from other sites (they are called an ad-supported news Aggregation website) and get writers to work for them for free! The Huffington Post has 88 full time paid employees and 6,000 unpaid bloggers! Many writers

From the New York Times March 29, 2010 issue:

Amateur photographers, who put their photos up on Flickr and then receive a contract with Getty Images illustrate the huge shake-up in photography during the last decade. Amateurs, happy to accept small checks for snapshots of children and sunsets, have increasing opportunities to make money on photos but are underpricing professional photographers and leaving them with limited career options. Professionals are also being hurt because magazines and newspapers are cutting pages or shutting altogether.

So, in conclusion, I guess we have to now work for nothing to make a living. Somehow that equation doesn’t quite work in my mind.

It reminded me of an assignment that was given out to a photographer each week by the Chicago Reader in the 1980’s. It was called 1000 Words. The deal was, you had to submit one photograph that told a complete story. The caption could only have the date of the image and the address- the photo had to tell the story. All for $100.00. The first time I got the assignment, I spent several sleepless nights trying to formulate a plan. At the last minute, I was invited to sit in the bleachers at opening day of the Cubs season. I got out there to find heaps of snow in the seating area. Took a photo and I was done. Pure dumb luck!! The image later ran in a calendar of the best of 1000 Words, so I guess I was on the right track. That assignment taught me how difficult it was to tell a story in photographic images. A lesson that was tipped in last week by seeing some of the most beautiful images in photographic history on the walls of a museum in downtown Chicago. I hope looking at the exhibit will make me a better photographer!

By the way, Pavement was great! For a band that hasn’t played together for quite a while, they were amazingly tight, and their songs stood the test of time. Most of the audience, who were probably 8 years old when the songs first came out were singing along to most of them.

Coming up in two weeks, Lallapaloza! With any luck, I will be able to shoot one less band there than I did at Pitchfork!

We were in agreement about most issues, all of which I have talked about here in the past. Then she brought up a great point that I have always been loath to discuss. “You know,” she said, “some photographers are real assholes.” YIKES, she is so correct.

We went on to discuss that sometimes (most of the time) it is easier to just eliminate the whole problem by restricting all photographers than to single out and eliminate the Aholes. Can’t tell you how many times I have wanted to scream when a photographer walks into the pit and puts his bag on the front of the stage. That stage belongs to the band- not the photographers!! The photo pit is a work are- if you are not working, move to the side. Just had a conversation this week with the head of publicity for a number of festivals in Chicago. We are discussing a plan where only working photographers are allowed into the photo pit. Another big problem is the fact that we are standing between the band and the paying customers (usually the ones that have paid the most money for their tickets). Every time there is a complaint from a fan that photographers are blocking the view of the fans by standing on the barricade, that is one more strike against us, and one more step toward the day when we will no longer have any access to do our jobs.

There is already a venue in Chicago (named after the city in fact) that makes all photographers shoot from the wall on the far right hand side of the venue, because they had too many complaints from paying customers. I now have to go through a half hour process every time I go there to get the access I need to take the pictures that I am getting paid to take!

The next night was the same but completely different!!

Northwestern Indiana and Weird Al Yankovic. A perfect combination. One of the most unhip guys performing on the planet, but a master of his craft. I have had many conversations lately about how young artists today don’t understand what showbiz means. When you are charging $50.00 or more for a ticket, you have to put on a show. You can’t just stand there and play your three cord based music and stare at the ground. They should all go out and watch a Weird Al show! Total showman. Costume changes after almost every song. Great parody songs. Perfectly rehearsed band who didn’t miss a note the whole show! And an audience who have been following him throughout his entire career (and brought their kids to start the whole thing all over again with another generation). This is what any band today can only wish for, but would most likely never achieve. This is what is called a career. Let’s see where the Lady GaGa’s of the world are in about 30 years!