The right to record events in public spaces is fast being eroded.
About a year ago, photo enthusiast Sean Farrow was struck by the beauty of Cape Schanck during a visit and wanted a picture of the beach and cliffs in the midday sun. He grabbed his new digital camera and headed down the steps to the sand until he was stopped by a booming voice from above.
It wasn't the voice of God, but someone whose power was equally closed to question. A uniformed ranger from Parks Victoria informed him: ''I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave, that's not permitted here.''
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According to Parks Victoria, commercial photography or filming in Victorian national parks is banned unless the photographer has paid for a permit. Such distinctions were apparently lost on the ranger because at that stage Farrow was hardly a commercial photographer. The camera he was carrying was relatively cheap, good enough for a competent amateur. It was, however, sufficient for the ranger to sense a transgression, so Farrow put away his equipment and left.
At the end of August, a group of photographers calling themselves Arts Freedom Australia held a rally in Sydney to protest at what they feel are increasing erosions of the right to record whatever is happening in a public place - a right that is supposedly enshrined in law.
There is growing alarm as freedoms to record life and nature are being restricted in a manner unprecedented in the years since 1825, when Frenchman Nicephore Niepce made the first photograph.
Since then, photography has produced an amazing record of human life. It has shown the horrors of war, beauty of nature, triumph of achievement, degradation of poverty, hubris of celebrity, but most importantly it has recorded everyday life. It is this latter category that is often most treasured.
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