Shame on Liu

[T42]

I’m new around here – more about me later. Maybe you’ve already seen this so hope I’m not duplicating a previous post…but this is just terrible.

Photographer arrested is chided for not warning pothole victim

A photographer in China was accused of lying in wait to take these pictures of a poor guy riding his bike into a pothole. Readers of the Beijing Youth Daily, which published the shots, wrote in to express their feelings. One wrote: "The pictures are well shot, but the person who shot this is disgusting. He knew there was a pit, but was waiting there for someone to fall over."

Liu defended himself, saying: "I just knew that the city government has paved the pit, and without my pictures, the pit would not be noticed by the government, and there would perhaps be more people falling over."


Link: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/12/27/photographer_arreste.html
More photos: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1399668.html

Honestly, some people will do anything to get a shot. Liu Tao should be nominated for the Street Photography Hall of Shame and banned from ever becoming a member of RFF. This reminds me of the ‘Slapping’ fad not long ago in England where someone would punch or slap an unsuspecting victim and take a reaction shot with a phone-camera. The worst thing I ever did was hurt someone’s feelings when I took their photo without their permission. Don’t feel so bad about that now.

Brief self intro: I don’t have a rangefinder yet. Unless I get the Ricoh GRD I’ll stick to film, mainly in p&s cameras (Gr1s, Contax T3, Yashica T4 – thanks Doug) for travel/street photography. It’s hard to resist some of the older Japanese fixed lens cameras of the 70/80s but I’ve decided to cool my GAS until I can afford the new Zeiss Ikon or something similar. Sometimes, I use a beat up Nikon FM10 + 50/1.4 It gets the job done but the shutter is just too violent for me. I look forward to getting a smoother/quicker camera. I guess I’ll remain a ‘lurker’ until I post a picture taken with a rangefinder. There’s no rush – gives me time to work on my new thing, the ‘magical’ end of photography - developing my own film.

Here’s a scan of my Tai Chi master. Nikon 50/1.4, tri-X 400 and scanned with Minolta Scan Dual IV. I just previewed this post and no sign of attatchments - I'll try to add it to the gallery later.

Many thanks to all the good people of RF forum who through this site have made possible the ‘democratization of connoisseurship’ in rangefinders/photography in general to people like me. [see interesting article about ebay by William Gibson in Wired: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.01/ebay.html]

Andy A.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Welcome to the forum, Andy!

 

[Film dino]

Welcome Andy & thanks for pointing out this story. I'm in Malaysia - potholes here can be deep & present serious danger to motorcyclists particularly during the monsoon. I don't think the photographer can justify his actions at all.
David

 

[oftheherd]

Welcome to the forum.

I once did something similar. I worked at a univesity where during graduations many people were tripped up by a small curb about 3 or 4 inches tall. I kept trying to interest someone in putting up barriers. Nobody would listen. Believe me, standing there shouting all all and sundry to watch out for that curb would not have been receive well. I would have been ordered to be silent, ordered away and might have lost my job for creating a disturbance during the happy graduation ceremonies.

I then went to my car and procured my camera, returned to the area, picked my spot and waited. I captured an elderly lady as she fell. Fortunately she was not badly injured, and was mostly embarassed at the commotion caused as people tried to assist her. I used the photo to write a report showing the danger to the public, and how a simple fix could save the university public relations or worse, litigation. I don't think my boss forwarded the report, but I felt I had done my job. Unfortunately it took one more year for the area to be fixed, but eventially it was.

Was I wrong to try and use my camera to help the university and future attendee? I can't speak for Liu of course, but I thought I was doing the best I could.

 

[David Goldfarb]

In New York City, the law used to be that you could sue the city for an injury related to a pothole or a flaw in the sidewalk if the city knew that there was such a flaw and failed to repair it. Recently, I believe, the law was changed so that building owners are now responsible for the sidewalk in front of their property, but under the old law a group of personal injury law firms sent people to walk around the entire city and produce a list of all the cracks in the sidewalk every year, and reported this information in the form of a book, which it gave to the city. Of course the city couldn't fix all the cracks, but if anyone tripped on one of those cracks, then they had a valid case against the city, and the city often had to pay.

On the one hand, the lawyers were being a little sleazy, but on the other hand, the city wasn't inspecting all the sidewalks themselves, and it did provide some motivation for the city to keep at least some of the sidewalks in good repair. I think I would say the same of this photographer. It's a little sleazy of him to be taking advantage of the poor cyclists in this way, but was he arrested because he took advantage of the cyclists to get the shot, or because he exposed the failure of the city to maintain the streets?

 

[oftheherd]

... but was he arrested because he took advantage of the cyclists to get the shot, or because he exposed the failure of the city to maintain the streets?

That's an interesting question.

Or perhaps because he tole the cyclist he had evidence of the danger and liability?

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

but was he arrested because he took advantage of the cyclists to get the shot, or because he exposed the failure of the city to maintain the streets?

Yes. I'll take "Bingo" for $2000, Alex.

I think the government did have a point and was clever enough to exploit the big "loophole" in the photographer's ethics. But, was it the photographer's responsibility to shout to traffic about the pothole? What if his shouting caused other accident(s)? Are regular "citizens" allowed to put a big sign in the middle of the street warning of the dangers of a big pothole? Would the government arrest anybody for "embarrasing" the government for somebody doing the job of what the government failed to do?

You could argue many points until you turn many shades of purple. But one thing is clear (to me): it p***s the hell out of me when government enforces "morality" as a means of distraction from its own faults.

 

[paulfitz]

Seems to me that the person in charge of the roads is the one who should be arrested. If the photographer had enough time to "lay in wait" for the weather and for the cyclist, then the pothole must have been there for some time. Sure, I agree it's poor practice to take advantage of other people's tradgedy. If he was a news pj, then perhaps he was trying to do a service. But could this same service be accomplished by shooting the pothole with cyclists avoiding it? And publishing those pictures?

I surely hope the man who fell was not injured seriously. He is the victim here, not of the photographer, but of the government bureaucracy.

 

[jan normandale]

Yes. I'll take "Bingo" for $2000, Alex.

I think the government did have a point and was clever enough to exploit the big "loophole" in the photographer's ethics. But, was it the photographer's responsibility to shout to traffic about the pothole? What if his shouting caused other accident(s)? Are regular "citizens" allowed to put a big sign in the middle of the street warning of the dangers of a big pothole? Would the government arrest anybody for "embarrasing" the government for somebody doing the job of what the government failed to do?

You could argue many points until you turn many shades of purple. But one thing is clear (to me): it p***s the hell out of me when government enforces "morality" as a means of distraction from its own faults.

I'm with Gabriel on this one. Seems to be a clear case of shoot the messenger. I doubt Liu's record of the cyclist was the only event resulting from the danger.

 

[RJBender]

Yes. I'll take "Bingo" for $2000, Alex.

I think the government did have a point and was clever enough to exploit the big "loophole" in the photographer's ethics. But, was it the photographer's responsibility to shout to traffic about the pothole? What if his shouting caused other accident(s)? Are regular "citizens" allowed to put a big sign in the middle of the street warning of the dangers of a big pothole? Would the government arrest anybody for "embarrasing" the government for somebody doing the job of what the government failed to do?
You could argue many points until you turn many shades of purple. But one thing is clear (to me): it p***s the hell out of me when government enforces "morality" as a means of distraction from its own faults.

R.J.