So yesterday, for reasons not to be revealed, I found myself in the Redbridge area of our fine capital. Being an amateur blogger and even more amateur photographer, I take an interest in urban landscapes and seek to find some images which might fit the London-Alt group on Flickr, or which are simply of interest to me.
The picture below, which although after all didn't turn out that interesting, did lead to the occurrence of an amusing little vignette of modern life.
After snapping the shot, I walked on looking for some more potential shots, when I heard a voice from behind me:
"Excuse me..."
Looking down the road, I could see a small man running towards me in a fairly agitated state. I stopped and waited for him to catch up. I smiled as he approached.
"You were taking a picture of our building..."
"Yes."
"Well, you do know that you were seen by our CCTV cameras taking this picture?"
"Oh."
"Obviously, we're a very high security company, and so I was just wondering why you were taking pictures."
"It's a hobby," I said, pulling out my phone and opening the pictures file as I spoke so that I could show him an example. "I take pictures of urban images..."
"Yes, but you do realise that you were captured on our cameras?"
"Oh. Look, here's one..." it was a picture of a building on the Cally Road. He looked at it, but didn't seem particularly impressed.
"We saw you taking pictures of our building."
"You said," I said. "I was interested in that thing at the top - don't know what it's called, sorry..."
"Ah, the menorah," the look on his face clearly indicated that he thought I was a schmuck "The... candlestick."
"Look," I said, "I'll be happy to delete it if you like. It's not that good anyway..."
"It's not a question of deleting it," he said, "It's just, you should be aware that we take security very seriously."
Oh right." I was unsure what to say next and he didn't appear to have anything else to say, so I started walking away.
"Just so as you know," he said from a distance, "You have been photographed. Taking a picture of our building. You are on camera."
It seemed an odd kind of threat in this day and age.
photos
5 comments:
if you have time, go to the temporary exhibit at the Tate Modern, called Global Cities... ( i think it's on to the 27) you'll see some amazing stuff....
Damn. You have more patience than I do. "I take my personal security very seriously. You should know I've taken a picture of you taking CCTV footage of me..."
Sheesh.
I was thinking of punching the little sod, but then I'm too hard for that, as you know.
I will rush down to Tate Modern and view the art installation for some inspiration
Good grief...is that picture what I think it is? It isn't still there, surely??
It is, and so is he! I was amazed to see him snipping away.
Post a Comment