We’ve set up an online e-action form to make it as easy as possible. Just click here to submit comments to the Mayor’s Office of Film and to the City Council Committee that oversees that office. There’s a sample letter there, and you can add your own comments, then hit send. Voila!

You can read the comments of other artists and organizations by scrolling down the Public Comments page.

Juliana Luecking’s YouTube response to the proposed regulations.

For Immediate Release
Contacts:
Lisa Guido (917) 573-2282
Beka Economopoulos (917) 202-5479
http://www.picturenewyork.org
info@picturenewyork.org

Artists Band Together to Fight Restrictions on Street Photography

“Picture New York” Formed In Response to Mayor’s Plans to Limit Cameras

YouTube “Video Public Comments” to be Submitted to Mayor’s Office

NEW YORK CITY: Picture New York WITHOUT pictures of New York. In one of the most photographed cities in the world, photographers and filmmakers, both professional and amateur, would be shut down by proposed regulations making it illegal for them to film or tape in NYC without a permit and a million dollars of insurance.

An overnight, massive grassroots fight against these proposed regulations has sprung up under the name ‘Picture New York.’ Fighting back with YouTube videos, petitions, handwritten letters, a website, Flickr space and a rally and press conference this Friday in Union Square, this ad-hoc group of working artists, photographers and filmmakers vow to stop the regulations going into effect as scheduled in September from the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre, and Broadcasting (MOFTB).

Albert Maysles, Patti Smith, Michael Stipe, and Amy Arbus are among the celebrated artists who have already signed on to demand the MOFTB extend the period of public comment, currently ending August 3, and eliminate the proposed regulations.

Jem Cohen, the critically-acclaimed filmmaker whose alarmed e-mail prompted an initial meeting of concerned filmmakers, says, “Because street photography is, by its very nature, inextricably born out of free and random movement through the city, street photographers cannot know exactly where and when they intend to work, or for how long. One cannot regulate an art form or activity by negating its very premise. The proposed rules, in refusing to recognize the spontaneity which is at the core of street photography, are untenable for that reason alone.”

“I already have a permit for my camera,” says another of the group’s founders, Beka Economopoulos. “It’s called the First Amendment.”

Since the Mayor’s Office of Film has asked for public comments, Picture New York has come up with a new form: the Video Public Comment. The first - perhaps ever - Video Public Comment has already been posted to YouTube by artist Juliana Luecking and more will follow. Picture New York wants to invite anyone who loves the city and their camera to make one and post it. (To learn how to make a Video Public Comment, please see the website at pictureny.org.)

The proposed regulations would affect much of the small scale filming and photography in the city. In addition to artists, those making Industrials, fashion, wedding and architectural photographs could need a permit. The regulations would require a permit for 5 people with one tripod who shoot for 10 minutes or more in one place. (And this would include set up and break down!). A film school graduate with a camcorder, four friends and a dream could have to pay comparable insurance fees with HBO to shoot in New York City. Even parents making home movies in public parks could fall under the new rules.

In the words of the Daily News, the regulations “are, in a word, nuts. . . They were written as if small bands of rogue photographers were running amok. And they won’t withstand court challenge unless the cops come down equally on everyone taking pictures, including mom and dad filming junior and pals at the playground.” The conservative New York Sun agrees: “It would be a sad day if New York became a place where a family has to get a permit before making a home video.”

The proposed rules are reminiscent of the MTA’s failed attempt to ban photography in the subways two years ago. “If we can take photographs underground without permits,” points out television producer Susan Marcoux, “we certainly should be able to take them above ground.”

“This is micro-management of public space taken to an absurd level. What are the police going to do – time people holding cameras?” asks Eileen Clancy of I-Witness Video who has written about conflicts between police and camera people after September 11th. “These new rules give the police another excuse to arrest anybody they don’t like with a camera.”

These regulations violate the First Amendment right to photograph in public places, points out the NYCLU, and follow a slew of recent laws that already restrict rights in New York City to parade, dance, meet, bike, shout, and assemble. Draconian noise ordinances and the new parade and assembly laws make constitutionally-protected dissent almost impossible. Now, with regulations on street photography, New York City adds yet another infringement on civil liberties and free expression.

Complete Text of the Proposed Regulations

The Mayor’s Office of Theater, Film, and Broadcasting, which coordinates film and television production and issues permits around the five boroughs, is considering rules that could potentially severely restrict the ability of even amateur photographers and filmmakers to operate in New York City. The NY Times reports that the city’s tentative rules include requiring any group of two or more people who want to use a camera in a single public location for more than a half hour (including setup and breakdown time) to get a city permit and $1 million in liability insurance. The regulation would also apply to any group of five or more people who would be using a tripod for more than ten minutes, including setup and breakdown time. -(Excerpted from the Gothamist)

If the above troubles you, please take action now. The city quietly released information about the proposed regulations on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and many of us missed the notice and subsequent hearing. The office is accepting public feedback until August 3, and the rules could go into effect this summer!

The Mayor’s Office of Film deals primarily with big film shoots (ie. commercials, features, t.v.) where permits and insurance are, understandably, a given. However, many photographers and filmmakers carry on an equally vital tradition in which spontaneous documentation of the urban environment is at the very heart of our work. Being a street photographer often means standing in a random location and waiting: for the right activity, the right light, the break in the traffic; the countless other unpredictable factors that need to fall into place to make a shot worthwhile…Permits would have to be obtained for specific dates and times and exact locations, and the insurance would be out of reach for many individuals.

The fact is that we simply CANNOT predict where, when, and how long we are going to film or photograph; we CANNOT afford expensive liability insurance policies; we occasionally NEED to work with other people or to use tripods to support our gear. (The regulations would, for example, effectively rule out a great deal of time-lapse photography which depends on tripods and cannot possibly be done with time limitations of 10 to 30 minutes, as well as the use of large format still cameras and long lenses).

Especially in the current climate, official clarification of photographer’s rights could be a positive thing. (Many of us have been shut down by police or other authorities who do not seem to understand that we DO have rights to film and photograph in public places). That said, if these regulations go through, it would invite if not require police to harass or shut down both professional artists and amateurs.

Unfortunately, we believe we must see the proposed regulations not only as a blow against New York as a city that welcomes and inspires art-making (and historical documentation), but as part of a continuum of broader attacks against civil liberties and free expression.

-From an email by filmmaker Jem Cohen

Picture New York Without Pictures of New York

Thousands of New Yorkers who love both their city and their cameras may face exactly that if the cumbersome, costly and unconstitutional regulations from the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater, and Broadcasting go into effect this August as scheduled.

Picture New York is an ad hoc coalition of working artists, filmmakers, and photographers who’ve joined together to fight the proposed rules. These rules can be seen not only as a blow against New York as a place that welcomes and inspires art-making and documentation, but are part of a broader continuum of attacks against civil liberties and free expression.

“This must not happen in our city. Filmmakers and photographers witness the “moment of now.” We are present-day historians. our tools must not be taken away and our rights must not be vanquished. The world needs to see who we are. and future generations need to see what we have seen and what we have been. If this absurd regulation passes, where will the artists go? They will be forced to leave the city. And then I ask, what will become of the city?”