More Bean
If you've been reading Temple of Me for the last few months you know all about Da Bean. (In case you don't find background here, here, here, and here)
Got all that?
I see the story as having two leads: the right to photograph public works and editorializing. Let's look in reverse orders of importance and time:
In the May27th edition of BoingBoing it appears Cory chose a different approach:
The park's management then set out to turn this prominent public sculpture into a moneymaker. They set out ruinous rates for professional photographers, wedding photos, and videographers, and then used the publicly funded security staff to enforce this ban. The security guards went around, kicking out anyone who looked like they may be a "professional" photographer, which meant anyone with a nice camera and/or a tripod.
OK, maybe "anyone with a nice camera" is a bit of hyperbole. Still, it sounds so much better than this from his original post entitled: Chicago's public sculpture can't be photographed by the public
Woe betide any member of the public who tries to photograph this sculpture, though: it's a copyrighted sculpture and Chicago is spending even more money policing Chicagoans who try to photograph it and make a record of what their tax-dollars bought.
It was "any member of the public" where I had problems with Cory's post. I think he gets much closer with "for professional photographers, wedding photos, and videographers"
In a article (May 27th issue of the Chicago Tribune registration required) Helen Doria, the Millennium Park executive director, discussed the "controversy" as the park reworked the need for professional photographers to get permits. (You see, the typical amatuer photographer never needed a permit. People like me...we could shoot all we wanted.)
Doria said she had received and read in the press gripes from photographers about overzealous guards who didn't differentiate between those who made their living with a camera and an amateur with a tripod."As soon as we heard about it," she said, "we told the guards, 'Back off.' "
It seems Doria knew there was a public relation problem from the beginning:
After complaints from professional photographers began to surface last fall, Doria began re-examining the policy. She said she worked with Titan in its recruitment and training of guards for the park."This was not about standing duty at a guard post, but interacting with the public," she said.
For me it comes down to this: should the city require some people to get permits to shoot pics of Da Bean? Yes, if they want to keep others away while shooting, No, if they don't mind photgraphing me standing 10 feet from the bean trying to get some rediculous combination mirror project/phoon/I shot myself (NSFW) hat trick. Note: I am not in any of those photos.
