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<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Loosen up on photography at MRT stations and public places
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I TOOK the MRT Circle Line recently and noted, with interest, the winning entries of a recent photographic competition featuring Circle Line stations, prominently displayed at Serangoon Central.
I am all in favour of such competitions, which encourage photographers to look for photo opportunities within their own backyard, rather than travel to exotic lands just to take nice pictures.
However, I also recall that some years ago, a photographer wrote to the press and said he was prevented from taking photos at an MRT station. The reply then was that taking photos at MRT stations is forbidden for 'security reasons'.
So what has happened? Have we thrown security concerns to the wind just for the sake of a competition? Or is it, I suspect, more a case of 'security' being used previously as an arbitrary excuse to stop someone pursuing a harmless hobby.
It is true that, once, some terrorist suspects were arrested for filming and taking photos of an MRT station. But this is no reason to overreact by banning photography altogether.
It is not just the MRT authorities that do this. My friends and I have often been stopped by security personnel from taking photos in other public places. On behalf of all photography enthusiasts, I urge building owners and security guards to stop regarding us as security threats.
We shoot only with cameras. We are not terrorists.
Richard Seah
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I TOOK the MRT Circle Line recently and noted, with interest, the winning entries of a recent photographic competition featuring Circle Line stations, prominently displayed at Serangoon Central.
I am all in favour of such competitions, which encourage photographers to look for photo opportunities within their own backyard, rather than travel to exotic lands just to take nice pictures.
However, I also recall that some years ago, a photographer wrote to the press and said he was prevented from taking photos at an MRT station. The reply then was that taking photos at MRT stations is forbidden for 'security reasons'.
So what has happened? Have we thrown security concerns to the wind just for the sake of a competition? Or is it, I suspect, more a case of 'security' being used previously as an arbitrary excuse to stop someone pursuing a harmless hobby.
It is true that, once, some terrorist suspects were arrested for filming and taking photos of an MRT station. But this is no reason to overreact by banning photography altogether.
It is not just the MRT authorities that do this. My friends and I have often been stopped by security personnel from taking photos in other public places. On behalf of all photography enthusiasts, I urge building owners and security guards to stop regarding us as security threats.
We shoot only with cameras. We are not terrorists.
Richard Seah
