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Don’t Take My Picture
Taking pictures has become a dangerous endeavor.
Some people don’t say “cheese.”
WHO’S ASSAULTING WHO? — The angry man in the picture above is saying, to me, “I’ll put you down like the mother fucking dog that you are.” This on the first day of the closing of the beach in Fort Lauderdale. Understand that I haven’t said a word (same as the first incident in the video that had occurred almost four years earlier). On the “mother fucking dog” day, I was shooting pictures, as I’ve done since (as a journalist) to document our lives in Fort Lauderdale, and how we are preparing for, and dealing with the coming disease.
Shit, I might consider his spewing his saliva in my face as an assault. But when I stopped to report the incident to two young officers, there response was to say, “that he has a right to be on the sidewalk, and if I didn’t want to be threatened, I might consider avoiding him, and not taking his picture.”
Sound familiar? You know it does to me.
#ME TOO — Watch this, it seems attacking photographers is an equal opportunity activity.
IN CONTEXT — The woman pictured was upset at my taking pictures behind the State Theater in St. Petersburg, Florida, where my friends (the band Living Colour) was doing a sound check. Taking a break, I walked out back into the alley to photograph a number of murals painted on most of the buildings’ exterior walls. While panning from one mural to another, I came upon the woman and her dog, nearly 50 yards away, as they entered my frame of view. Apparently she took offense at having my camera pointed in her direction. Without question, she immediately vocalized her objection. Rarely does such an attack yield a positive response, and as I continued to aim in her direction, instead of simply going about her less-than-merry way, the woman chose to attack me physically. Well, there you go … ATTACKED AGAIN, NATURALLY.
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for more about Living Colour.
I don’t know what kind of music you consume, Sean, but I thought you might appreciate my friends’ talent. And as I say, it puts my being abused in an entertaining bit of context.