A Brave New World (another mall photography story)

<p>http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-196305310/returning-pruneyard-unconstitutionality-state.html</p>

<p>The whole issue could be easily resolved by asking and getting permission first. As might come through the above article, one of you brave souls may well be the one who actually solves the problem by getting arrested and losing on appeal. It's not that unlikely a scenario.</p>

<p>Matt: I guess I couldn't think of any reason (other than terrorism) to prohibit photography in a mall. With the number of cell phones out there now (some with reasonable quality...by cell phone standards), it seems silly to even try to do any meaningful prohibition of photography, but silliness is everywhere, so I've come to expect as much.</p>

<p>I always feel the need to interject my experience of mall-photographing, simply because it's completely different. Clearly it depends on the mall.</p>

<p>I was shooting a photo project for class, and I went into the mall on a Saturday evening, a very busy day for shopping, and it was around the Holidays, so even more so. Not only did I do in with my "model" and my camera, I went in with a toilet. Yes, as in a porcelain toilet. I went in, shot for maybe 20 minutes, had every employee of the store I was parked right out in front of angrily watching me, and had numerous people stop and look very confused. Never once got stopped by mall security. Even had a few mall workers walk by and everything.<br>

<a title="ToiletMall by rakeif, on Flickr" href=" title="ToiletMall by rakeif, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3450/3213162842_cd1215f4f3.jpg" alt="ToiletMall" width="500" height="333" /> </a><br>

looking back, it's not that great of a photo, needs some compositional help, however, I got a good grade on the project, and a great memory to think back on.</p>

<p>Reasons? Terrorism is an issue of course, a mall is a place with relatively easy access and a lot of people. Some sites that have LE connections that I'm aware of are concerned about the things they've heard, etc. Malls have been attacked in Israel and there have been shootings in malls in the US, so that's not off the radar. Besides terrorist issues, malls are subject to other types of crimes. Now, I don't believe all of the criminals actually scout out their opportunities but in the good old days, some did.</p>

<p>The stores don't like it. They pay the mall really big bucks to keep the path to their doors clear, clean and safe. They also have some odd feeling that they need to let all the customers see their wonderful displays and lay-out, but not their competitors. Who in a mall may be several doors away. Whatever, but the mall is going to respond to it's tenants concerns.</p>

<p>People in the way. Malls have ongoing problems with clusters of kids hanging out and not spending money and being annoying enough that the real customers find other places to go. Maybe they are just hanging out but if they decide the latest thing they can do is hang out and take pictures with their "phones," like they can do of their skateboarding, etc., it's "in the way."</p>

<p>Yeah, some people look like "real" photographers but then asking the mall to be that kind of discriminating between the various different age and camera categories is rather awkward. Then we get the complaints about the serious student photographer, etc., etc.</p>

<p>It can't be that hard to call first and talk to management and get permission. Besides, does anybody really want to have to explain their reasons for doing their business their way, just because someone doesn't like it?</p>

<p>On a lark (and after having coffee together a few different mornings), I thought I'd shoot a little day-in-the-life type stuff of the seasonal Mall Santa you see below. A gregarious, happy, lady's man of a St. Nick, that's for sure.<br /><br />When I started shooting his larger work space/stage, a mall staffer came over to talk to me. He indicated that photography in the mall was not allowed... but asked me if I'd like to talk to the mall management about it. He escorted me to the management offices where I had a chance to talk to someone higher up the food chain.<br /><br />In addition to allowing me to finish my casuaul shots, we talked a bit about the reasons for the general restrictions. Her prevailing theme? That the mall is a place that makes its money by renting out its use. They lease long term space to stores, the make short-term leases to kiosk operators and service providers, and they make hourly or daily rentals to people making use of the malls larger central spaces.<br /><br />They rent it out to talent search gigs, Santa operations, musical performances, marketing events, daycare outings, clubs/fundraisers, job markets, and all sorts of other things. They like to keep the prevailing "no photography" rules in place for lots of reasons... <em>among</em> them, because the renters themselves sometimes like to control how photography is used as part of how they use the rented space, and because the mall sees commercial photography as an activity they can treat like that of any other professional. <br /><br />And of course ... there's the "mom worrying about the kids" factor, the "creeps shooting up the escalator" factor, and similar stuff, as mentioned previously. Every venue will have its own considerations. But these people <em>do</em> run these large businesses for a living. They don't really have any interest in deliberately antagonizing their customers' customers. Just talk to them about it, if you really want to shoot in their place.</p><div></div>