Monday, March 28, 2005

Run-in with the Law

Light posting last week. I have contact prints from the day on the turnpike, and they look like they're going to be pretty good. Some editing and I'll get to a scanner this week.

Went to Long Island to shoot last night. Not a good idea. I'd forgotten the forecast was for rain and it was freezing. I'd planned to print yesterday, but stupidly, I didn't reserve lab time and thought I could just turn up. I'm guessing ICP must be gearing up for the student show, because as I sit here writing this now before class, the walls are almost totally stripped bare. So it'll probably be a bit hard to squeeze in for a while.

Anyway, I was shooting in the cold last night, not feeling so great about things. I'm staring at a house trying to figure out how I was going to try to shoot it, when a car pulls up in front of me. I'm kind of standing in the middle of the street, and I take a step back to get onto the sidewalk, and I'm kind of staring, when I realize there are three other cars around me, and two of them are marked police cars. The forth was a black Towncar with black tinted windows. You'd think the secret police would come up with something a little more subtle in this day and age, but I guess that's not the case.

Apparently they're received around a half dozen calls because I'd been photographing near the school. I was really nervous and I gave them my ID when they asked for it, something which I did fairly instinctively, although I feel a little bit like a wuss stooge for that today. I told them I was an artist and when they asked me what I was doing in Lynnbrook, I got uncomfortable in that self-conscious way I get when people ask me what my work is about. Really, it was completely absurd, trying to explain to three cops how I was interested in suburban alienation.

Absurd moment number 2: What kind of idiot do you have to be to imagine that someone shooting with a tripod and a Crown Graphic could be up to something sinister? You'd be hard pressed to find a more, ridiculous tool for someone up to any kind of illegal activity. Seriously, do these people not have cameras on their fucking phones? What kind of crook/rapist/terrorist is going to hang around a brightly lit street, middle of the night or no, with a huge camera and tripod and just sit there?

Anyway, thank god I'm not olive complective of any kind.

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