The Porno Theater Usher

The other night in Philly I was setting up to take this shot when the porno theater guy comes running out at me saying, "No pictures, no pictures, the boss doesn't want any pictures." So I turn to him and say, "Fuck the bosses! Every boss I have ever had sucks and you know what guy, your boss sucks too, he don't pay you enough for all your hard work, fuck him." He didn't seem too concerned about his pay and said that he's going to call the boss. I told him, "Fine, call your boss. Your boss can't do shit because I am in public domain, on the streets, and I have the freedom to take any picture I want, so if you want to call your boss, go ahead, and while your at it, call the police too!" He turned and slowly walked back to his ticket stub booth. The boss didn't come, nor did the police, but two creepy guys did and they bought tickets with quick movements and looked around after they got their ticket to see if anyone was watching them. I was.

I am sick and tired of this war that has been waged on photography. Know your rights as photographers! Don't let anyone tell you you can't take a photograph, and if you don't know your rights then make them up. I have been trying to figure out where this self importance that people have adopted as crusaders for the war on photography has come from. Is it a result of the Bush years and the invention of Homeland Security (I have been surrounded by a swarm of Homeland Security dudes as well, and to be honest, I tried to make up some shit why it was cool for me to be shooting this oil refinery here and that I was almost done could they wait 5 minutes and then we can parlay, but they weren't really having that, and also I was distracted by one officer who looked like half of his face had been shot off and when I asked him if I could take his portrait he got really pissed off, and then they followed me for a half hour and had me bugging out)....and where was I? Oh, yes, or has the glamour and notoriety of the photograph dissolved in the digital era when every jerk off with a cell phone or $100 digi camera (and not to say that a $100 camera is a bad thing, I love all 3 of T4s) is now a photographer, and people are just bored and don't want to be bothered anymore. Maybe it's both, maybe people suck, maybe the bosses aren't paying enough and ask for too much, or maybe it's me, I'm the asshole, and this is America.