Paranoia!

[ChrisN]

An unusual event today for me: I met another Leica user! I bumped into Justin at the local flea-market, as he was making photos with his new Leica M9-P. We enjoyed chatting for a while, comparing notes on lenses, and found we shared some mutual friends. I was also able to feel the heft of the M9 with the 35/2 ASPH attached, which I had been wondering about. Nice to meet you Justin, and I hope you do drop in here. 🙂

The bit about paranoia came a little later, when I met up with my wife who had been chatting with a friend who is a stall-holder. The flea-market is mostly small traders, undoubtedly including a few "shady dealers" with goods of dubious origin, and I'd be surprised if the sales revenue is ever recorded in a tax return. Justin had mentioned that one lady ran up to him, asked if he had taken her photo, and asked him to delete it, in strong terms.

My wife mentioned to me that a lady had approached her friend the stall-holder, and warned her that there were two men who were taking photos of people, and they were from the taxation department! She said they were talking and comparing the photos they had taken. She warned the stall-holder to keep her eyes open for them!

Markets can be interesting places, but it pays to establish your "bona fides" before photographing some of the sellers! 😀

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Chris,

Yeah, had the same thing 25 years ago in Eastville Market in Bristol. I wasn't with anyone: it takes just one photographer to instil paranoia in some of these market traders, for exactly the reasons you give.

Around the same time, I had just taken a picture of someone selling the Socialist Worker and he asked me why. I shrugged: "Just a picture of someone in the street." Turned out he was convinced I was from some evil government organization.

Edit: from Agoraphilia,http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps agoraphilia.html

There are two kinds of market traders: the ones who don't mind being photographed -- the ones, indeed, who see it as part of the showmanship of their trade -- and the ones who do. Fortunately, in most markets, there are enough of the former that the latter do not prove a serious problem: even if they are unhappy, the market is crowded enough, and they are tied enough to their stalls, that you are at no real risk. The worst places we have found have been in the UK, where (it is impossible to suspect otherwise) some of the stall-holders are claiming social security while running market-stalls to top up their income. If they think you are some sort of official, spying on them, they can become quite abusive. But that is all they can do: again, the market stops them assaulting you, smashing your camera. You become a part of the street entertainment, along with the buskers and beggars; you may annoy some people, but others regard you with tolerance, amusement, even welcome.

Cheers,

R.

 

[oftheherd]

Interesting story. On those occasions I have photographed at our local farmer's market, I don't think I have ever gotten anything but slight annoyance looks, if they even noticed me. Usually when I return with photos, they are thankful and I am no longer an annoyance. But then we don't have that unique aspect where we could be considered revenuers.

 

[__hh]

Hi Chris,

I, too, ran into Justin this afternoon. Will email him a link here 🙂

That M9-P sure was a nice piece of kit.

I have no doubt that the lady was right, the two of you are shady characters 🙂

 

[ChrisN]

G'day Hung - yes well we tried our best to inconspicuous, black bodied Leicas even! 🙂

It must have been a day for bumping into Justin and friends: after T&T I dropped in to JB Hifi and talked with the young woman on the camera counter. Turned out she also knows Justin and he used to work there! Small town!

 

[Richard G]

I came around the corner to one of my usual lunch haunts and the road was blocked with a semi-trailer unlaoding some large wooden window frames. I was carrying my X100, strap around the wrist, jacket and tie. The guy supervising the unloading saw me and my camera as soon as I appeared and he established eye contact and moved to greet me. From some way off I made an accepting gesture which communicated that the unexpected obstruction was no big deal to me, but he kept heading in my direction, a silver-haired man in his early sixties, fit and with bird-like sharp eyes. "You're not from the council are you?" He'd had trouble with the council being unreasonable about unloading stuff in East Melbourne. "OK, if you're not you can take a photo if you want." It was raining a little and I said I was just going to have lunch. After lunch I spoke with him and he then asked me about the X100 - "Digital?" I explained. I then took a photo of him on top of all the frames. Not much good. It was raining. Discovered a new use for the iPad, sheltering my X100 as I walked back to work.

 

[thomob]

I shoot at the markets around Melbourne quite regularly and I am not met with much hositility as of yet...

There was one guys stall which had a mirror in it, which i was trying to get a nice shot with and he told me to leave, I kept taking the shot, so he proceeded to take the mirror down and get quite angry. Ha ha, apart from that, a lot of stall holders WANT me to take their portrait.

 

[justiceimages]

My account has finally been 'activated'. Nice to meet you too Chris. What a funny day that was. It hasn't stopped be shooting that's for sure. Next time though i will not be such a pushover.

 

[ChrisN]

Justin - welcome to the forum! From what I have seen of your images on Flickr (you should put a link in your sig) you are not timid and certainly not a pushover. Good work and keep shooting!

 

[sdotkling]

Similar thing happened to me yesterday. I was just walking around a warehouse district in New York City with my camera, looking very unthreatening (or so I thought.) After taking a few shots of some chain link fence with a figure behind it, hauling boxes, a group of men emerged, talking excitedly amongst themselves, one coming at me with a camera of his own while hiding his face behind his coat. Very strange. I photographed him photographing me, which only made more of them photograph me with their cell phones. Finally I said, "Why are we doing this, exactly?" and walked away.

 

[cambolt]

My first day shooting with a Leica: walked into the mall, camera in hand, not intending to take any photos. Security guard walks right up to me and tells me that photography is prohibited in the mall. Maybe it was just the way I was holding the camera, but nothing like that ever happened on the numerous occasions I have walked through the mall with my Spotmatic.