Here's an article quoting our own Otto Vondrak from The Journal News of Jannuary 5, 2005:
http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/ ... laces.html
Don't shoot in the subways
By CAREN HALBFINGER
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: January 5, 2005)
<img src="http://www.railroad.net/news/ottoandjosh.jpg" align="right" alt="Otto Vondrak and Josh Weis taking photographs">Photos and videos of families from around the world, waving as they ride New York City's subways, would no longer be among the souvenir snapshots tourists take home.
Hobbyists and students could no longer take spontaneous pictures of commuters rushing by, or the homeless reaching out, or musicians playing for change in the Times Square station.
And railroad fans would be denied the pleasure of photographing new and old subway cars as they barrel down the tracks above or below ground.
The visual record of the next 100 years of subway history would belong only to photojournalists with New York City police-issued press passes or to those who thought far enough ahead to request and receive advance permission to shoot photos in the subways.
That's what could happen if the New York City Transit Committee and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board approve an MTA police request to revive a ban on subway photography that was rescinded in 1994.
A 45-day comment period for the proposed rule change ends Monday. The transit committee and the MTA board are expected to review the comments and vote on the proposal — made in the name of passenger and subway system security — later this month.
In the week since Going Places asked for early public comment, 17 people have shared their thoughts from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and England. At best, they deemed the plan a misguided attempt at security that wouldn't thwart anyone bent on doing harm, but would curb public freedom, draw law-enforcement personnel away from preventing and responding to crime, and cause tourists and rail fans to be harassed, arrested and fined. At worst, they called it a foolish plan that would do little but give riders a false sense of security.
"It never made sense," said Richard Marks, a retired New York City Transit police captain who lives in Yonkers and retired in 1994 after 26 years on the force. "We never pushed it. It makes less sense now. The terrorists are going to find out what they want to find out."
Otto Vondrak, 27, a graphic artist who lives in Harrison, said the requirement to schedule a time and place would put a damper on rail fans' spontaneity. He also worried that Metro-North and Long Island railroads would follow suit. He and other rail fans already are stopped and questioned by police at Metro-North stations such as Mount Vernon East, Scarsdale and Ardsley, just for taking pictures of trains from the platform or from the street, even though that is allowed. The proposed ban would cover subways and the Staten Island Railway.
"They're trying to find public ways to show the public they're doing something," Vondrak said. "A fan is more likely to report something than police and passengers, because we know the equipment and can recognize a problem if we spot one."
The New York City Transit Museum's bookstore in Grand Central Terminal sells at least a dozen books with lots of subway photos, and many books and films with system photographs and maps are sold through the Internet or in book stores.
[snip - the rest of the article can be read at: http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/ ... laces.html]
http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/ ... laces.html
Don't shoot in the subways
By CAREN HALBFINGER
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: January 5, 2005)
<img src="http://www.railroad.net/news/ottoandjosh.jpg" align="right" alt="Otto Vondrak and Josh Weis taking photographs">Photos and videos of families from around the world, waving as they ride New York City's subways, would no longer be among the souvenir snapshots tourists take home.
Hobbyists and students could no longer take spontaneous pictures of commuters rushing by, or the homeless reaching out, or musicians playing for change in the Times Square station.
And railroad fans would be denied the pleasure of photographing new and old subway cars as they barrel down the tracks above or below ground.
The visual record of the next 100 years of subway history would belong only to photojournalists with New York City police-issued press passes or to those who thought far enough ahead to request and receive advance permission to shoot photos in the subways.
That's what could happen if the New York City Transit Committee and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board approve an MTA police request to revive a ban on subway photography that was rescinded in 1994.
A 45-day comment period for the proposed rule change ends Monday. The transit committee and the MTA board are expected to review the comments and vote on the proposal — made in the name of passenger and subway system security — later this month.
In the week since Going Places asked for early public comment, 17 people have shared their thoughts from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and England. At best, they deemed the plan a misguided attempt at security that wouldn't thwart anyone bent on doing harm, but would curb public freedom, draw law-enforcement personnel away from preventing and responding to crime, and cause tourists and rail fans to be harassed, arrested and fined. At worst, they called it a foolish plan that would do little but give riders a false sense of security.
"It never made sense," said Richard Marks, a retired New York City Transit police captain who lives in Yonkers and retired in 1994 after 26 years on the force. "We never pushed it. It makes less sense now. The terrorists are going to find out what they want to find out."
Otto Vondrak, 27, a graphic artist who lives in Harrison, said the requirement to schedule a time and place would put a damper on rail fans' spontaneity. He also worried that Metro-North and Long Island railroads would follow suit. He and other rail fans already are stopped and questioned by police at Metro-North stations such as Mount Vernon East, Scarsdale and Ardsley, just for taking pictures of trains from the platform or from the street, even though that is allowed. The proposed ban would cover subways and the Staten Island Railway.
"They're trying to find public ways to show the public they're doing something," Vondrak said. "A fan is more likely to report something than police and passengers, because we know the equipment and can recognize a problem if we spot one."
The New York City Transit Museum's bookstore in Grand Central Terminal sells at least a dozen books with lots of subway photos, and many books and films with system photographs and maps are sold through the Internet or in book stores.
[snip - the rest of the article can be read at: http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/ ... laces.html]
