Oxford School of Photography

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Tag Archives: Law

Act of Terror: arrested for filming police officers – video

When police carried out a routine stop-and-search of her boyfriend on the London Underground, Gemma Atkinson filmed the incident. She was detained, handcuffed and threatened with arrest. She launched a legal battle, which ended with the police settling the case in 2010. With the money from the settlement she funded the production of this animated film, which she says shows how her story and highlights police misuse of counterterrorism powers to restrict photography

I’m a photographer not a terroristScreen Shot 2013-04-29 at 12.44.38

Photographing in public: When the police gets it wrong

Who would you count on to know and understand the law, probably a member of the police I would guess. Here is a sorry tale from the ‘ police don’t know what they are talking about’  folder. The people over at Photocritic.org have a tale from an amateur photographer who was given a right run around by the police for doing something that is completely legal. Here is the start of the article which in it’s fullness is shocking

“A few days ago, I received an e-mail from a reader who had been through an interesting ordeal by the hands of UK police. They wanted a bit of advice, and I figured more of you might like to learn a little bit more about what happens when you are given a stern talking to by police about taking photos in a public place.”...more

I wrote about this problem recently and if you have a look here you will find a full and reasoned article from a person who does understand the law, I would suggest you download it and print it off it is from the Sirimo people and is called UK Photographers Rights. You can show it to the ignorant person who tells you that you cannot take pictures here.

Photography and the Law

This problem of where and when you are not allowed to take photographs is worldwide and in terms of being told “you can’t take pictures here” getting worse. This article which is US centric makes many points that are valid anywhere and offers good advice on how to avoid trouble. If you are considering going out to photograph in the streets, shopping malls, railway stations, in fact anywhere other than empty spaces you will find this useful

The Ten Legal Commandments of Photography

Photography and The Law: Know Your Rights

So you are out in the street taking photographs and someone says “you can’t do that, it’s against the law” well they are almost certainly wrong. You do want to avoid confrontations but you do have rights, this article outlines what you can and can’t do and has links to various countries in case the situation is different where you live.