Today I invoked the wrath of security at Abercrombie & Fitch. Had an editorial assignment to illustrated federal report on construction spending. A&F’s new warehouse is a huge project easily viewable from a four-lane highway and with an obstructed view from an access road on the opposite side. Construction activities ranged from earth movers excavating for a new outbuilding, dump trucks dropping gravel and fill dirt for a parking lot, exterior steel and sheathing being installed and electricians moving a streetlight to make way for a new entrance to the property.
I shot from the four-lane with long glass for a sheathing image then traveled to the other side to shoot the steel and gravel images. A large berm almost 30-feet high separated me from being able to see the property so I strolled to the top, cameras across my shoulders, to see what it looked like. Not very attractive from my first perch so I descended the dirt mound and walked along the tree-lined median strip of the divided road toward the other end of the building where I hope to have a better angle.
About three minutes into what would have been a five minute trek, two men in a grey H2 pulled up and wanted to know what I was doing. I explained, freelance photographer, federal report, client’s name, reason for walking down the median, and smiled. They immediately wanted to see what I had photographed. I refused and they threatened me with seizure of my equipment, deletion of all images and general harassment. I again smiled and refused. There continued a banter where they insisted they had the write to delete my images because I was on private property, I insisted the street I was on was public property. They suggested it wasn’t. I refused the suggestion. They continued to insist I had violated the law by taking pictures of their property. I told them if I had violated the law they should call a cop and have me arrested.
My presence atop the mound was seen by a security officer and they wanted to know what I was doing up there. I again explained what I was doing and had traveled to the top of the mound to see what was on the other side.
While I was talking to the driver the passenger, with a large athletic bag on his lap, talked in whispers on his handheld radio. The driver’s window was rolled up for a moment as they spoke to each other. I started to walk to my car at the opposite end of the to unload my gear as I knew my photo shoot was pretty much over. They passed me and parked behind my car with the passenger still talking on the radio.
I placed my gear in my car, started to bid them farewell when the police arrived.
Standard police questioning. Normal photojournalist answers. Cops agreed with me that I was on public property and and could shoot whatever I wanted without interference. He did acknowledge that my looking at the site from the mound was trespassing and I could be served for the transgression. Going beyond the 13-foot right-of-way placed me on their property.
The cop did make one great observation. He noted just as the security people couldn’t prevent me from flying over the site and take pictures, they couldn’t stop me from shooting from the ground. There’s no difference between airspace and street space except altitude. And, in this case, attitude by security.
I was served with a trespassing warning, never to set foot upon A&F property again without written permission. Guess I’ll refuse their next invitation to a PR gig without a written invitation addressed specifically to me.
Almost forgot. This posting’s image is from a smaller site nearby where steel constructors were more than happy to have me show teh complexity of their work and their contribution to the economy.
