Radical extremists object to being mistaken for common photographers.
(One only wishes this were a bit more far-fetched.)As one member of a Coventry-based Al Qaeda cell explained to us, "I resent being treated like I’m some sort of photographer. [...] Photographers are a blight on society, and obviously I damn them all to Hell, but I find the assumption that carrying a camera makes me some sort of 'photographer' insulting in the extreme."
Mike
(Thanks to Erlik)
Send this post to a friend
Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.
I'm chief photographer at my shop and I just forwarded a link to this to all our shooters and most of my friends.
Thanks
Posted by: Mike Plews | Monday, 09 August 2010 at 05:14 PM
Satire given, I had a shot with a model yesterday who had been working in Dubai and I asked him if he had met any Middle Eastern photographers and he said no, all the photographers were foreigners, but possibly because the natives in Dubai had no reason to work (in his opinion). On a deeper level, I want to know if he had encountered anyone who thought photography was "haram" (prohibited) in Islam because it commits the image of a person to a film. This came up ages ago when I was in discussions with a company in a Muslim country over creating video games. The new guard was all for it, but they still needed the blessing of a religious authority because of the question of whether one could show humans in images.
Posted by: Keith Loh | Monday, 09 August 2010 at 06:21 PM
Is this a British version of The Onion.
Posted by: Ron W | Monday, 09 August 2010 at 09:16 PM
"On a deeper level, I want to know if he had encountered anyone who thought photography was "haram" (prohibited) in Islam because it commits the image of a person to a film."
Yep, it has been a half century of breaking the second commandment for me.
Posted by: hugh crawford | Monday, 09 August 2010 at 10:04 PM
It's easy to be mistaken for a photographer when you carry a Canon :-)
Posted by: diforbes | Monday, 09 August 2010 at 11:36 PM
@Keith. In Dubai there are loads of Middle Eastern photographers from Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi and all over that region. Dubai also has plenty of local Emirati photographers. Photography is popular with both sexes there so your model can't have experienced much of the place. Natives might not have the entrepreneurial skills that expats bring with them, mostly working in the public sector, but they are getting there, slowly.
Posted by: Mark | Tuesday, 10 August 2010 at 01:07 AM
Dear diforbes,
So does that mean it's easy to be mistaken for a god if you carry an Olympus?
Jest wondrin'...
pax / EP-1-owning Ctein
Posted by: ctein | Tuesday, 10 August 2010 at 03:05 AM
The Onion ?
Possibly, although I doubt it.
The Grandad of British satirical publishing, and at the same time a bastion of investigative journalism would be "Private Eye." It's the only bit of the fourth estate worth having, as far as I'm concerned, and I'm not sure they're commissioning a lot of photography for all that.
For online satire of a significantly lower standard, I guess there's Newsarse, or The Daily Mash (strapline for the latter however is "Frequent, intense profanity" so don't grumble you weren't warned.)
Y
Posted by: Yanchik | Tuesday, 10 August 2010 at 04:17 AM
In reply to Ron W, the best British equivalent to The Onion is The Daily Mash. However, as a Brit, I think the Onion is much better.
Posted by: Mark Cotter | Tuesday, 10 August 2010 at 10:19 AM
Just as I thought: we ARE the lowest of the low--even terrorists think we suck....
Posted by: Paul W. Luscher | Tuesday, 10 August 2010 at 12:28 PM
He who can't spell does take a Canon as a cannon, and he the terrorist who wears one will immediately be taken as a photographer !
Posted by: Roland L | Tuesday, 10 August 2010 at 12:53 PM
Of interest: Photography Through The Eyes of Saudi Arabian Women
There's a book of the same name available - don't forget to use "the links".
Posted by: Robert Howell | Tuesday, 10 August 2010 at 05:19 PM
While "the assumption that carrying a camera makes [one] some sort of ‘photographer’" may not really be "insulting in the extreme", looking at Flickr, MySpace or Twitpics demonstrates it to be possibly false in the extreme :)
Posted by: Ludovic | Sunday, 15 August 2010 at 08:45 PM