I had just finished taking the portrait of 2 gentlemen on a bench in Vivary Park yesterday. \u00a0As I packed away my camera I was approached by a policeman and a community support officer. \u00a0They were primarily interested in talking to the two people I was photographing. \u00a0So right in front of me they had a very polite and pointless conversation with them about something that had happened a few days previous. \u00a0They then turned their attention to me and asked a few tentative questions about whether or not I am asking permission before I photographed people. \u00a0Now here we have yet another person who's knowledge of the laws on photography is based on myth. \u00a0I didn't break step from my task in hand as I spoke with the policeman, I continued to get out my black writing pad with the model release forms inside and fill one out for the pictures I had just taken. \u00a0I glanced at the policeman, pointed with my pen to the words \"Model Release Form\" and said \"I am well aware of the laws on photography\", at which point he said \"Ok then\" and turned to walk away.<\/p>\n
As soon as they were out of ear shot the subjects of my photos said to me \"Ya' know if you weren't here they would have searched our bags\". \u00a0They went on to explain that is the reason it was a community support officer with a proper policeman, was that he would have asked him to travel with him because only the proper copper has the power to search bags. \u00a0I asked what they were looking for and they said alcohol.<\/p>\n
The two guys then went on to tell me some more stories about being homeless for 14 years. \u00a0I asked if each person has a regular spots that they sleep in and he said no they don't it's best to move around, especially in the early hours after a Friday and Saturday night. \u00a0If a drunken yob finds you sleeping rough then you're in for trouble. \u00a0He's been kicked, punched and had bottles thrown at him before. \u00a0He usually throws the bottles back but that's when it gets complicated because the police ask \"Why were you throwing bottles\" and it all gets very confused. \u00a0He'd once had petrol thrown over him but before the culprit could get away he's chased him down and got him in a head-lock. \u00a0Stood their he flicked open his zippo and calmly asked in his\u00a0dulcet\u00a0Birmingham voice \"Do you really want me to do this kid?\". \u00a0After that the police let him use the shower to get the and gave him a clean set of clothes.<\/p>\n
The Christian group on Mount Street do cups of tea for 20 pence, an English breakfast for 50 pence and they'll do your washing and let you use a shower too. \u00a0Now as with everyone I photograph I like to buy them a little gift to say thank you. \u00a0Being in Vivary Park there was no service counters around so I said \"How much is a beer these days... \u00a0\u00a32.50?\" they said \"Yeah about that\" and I said \"Well how about I give you a fiver to say thank you and you guys can spend it when you're near a bar?\". \u00a0They were very grateful. \u00a0Smiles all round we shook hands and I carried on my mission to find People Watchers. \u00a0A part of me hopes that at least some of that \u00a35 will go on a couple of cups of tea and 2 full English breakfasts.<\/p>\n
Oh and going back to the earlier point, it may be anti-social to take an adult's photograph in a public place without asking permission but it is not illegal! \u00a0It is what you do<\/em> with that photograph that dictates the legality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I had just finished taking the portrait of 2 gentlemen on a bench in Vivary Park yesterday. \u00a0As I packed away my camera I was approached by a policeman and a community support officer. \u00a0They were primarily interested in talking to the two people I was photographing. \u00a0So right in front of me they had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120,"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions\/120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinjoiner.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}