Long Beach Police & Photography
Monday, August 15, 2011 at 2:57PM 
The Long Beach Police are now in the position of determining whether or not a photographer's images have any aesthetic value....
"If an officer sees someone taking pictures of something like a refinery," says McDonnell, "it is incumbent upon the officer to make contact with the individual." McDonnell went on to say that whether said contact becomes detainment depends on the circumstances the officer encounters.
McDonnell says that while there is no police training specific to determining whether a photographer's subject has "apparent esthetic value," officers make such judgments "based on their overall training and experience" and will generally approach photographers not engaging in "regular tourist behavior."
I don't even know where to begin....
Photo Credit: A photograph shot by Sander Roscoe Wolff on June 30 before he was detained by Long Beach Police
This is a beautiful image, and IMHO most snapshots lack any aesthetic value. But I only have 7 years of art school and 15 years of teaching experience in aesthetics, the officer on the beat has zero, so what do I know.
And one parting shot - since when is a photographer's role in society strictly limited to aesthetic value?
Documentary, Ethics, Homeland Security, Photography in Photography
Reader Comments (1)
My friend and I got stopped by two plain clothed police while we were photographing at night against a cool metal wall. It happened to be adjacent to a water works building, but we were not trespassing or doing anything covert looking. We were in plain view near the street. He asked us what we were doing, but our reply, "taking photos against this cool wall," wasn't sufficient. He then asked us point blank if we are terrorists. I think I started laughing at the absurdity of it and looked around like I was on candid camera or something.
He couldn't see my images bcz they weren't digital, so determining their aesthetic value wasn't an option, but he told us to scram. If my model had been a hot blond instead of a 6'2" Black/Euro/Mexican man, I think the whole scene would have gone down quite differently and our "aesthetics" would have been acceptable enough for us to have completed our mission.