Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Md.: At MARC, a Snapshot of Post-9/11 Excess
At MARC, a Snapshot of Post-9/11 Excess
By Marc Fisher
Sunday, February 26, 2006; C01
Preety Gadhoke isn't a famous artist. She's a graduate student in environmental health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. But she sees the world in ways she wants to express, and she's trying to do that through photography.
That's how she ran into the MARC police.
Gadhoke, 32, is taking the "Joy of Photography" course at the Smithsonian Resident Associate Program. One morning this month, after her teacher, Falls Church photographer Olive Rosen, assigned students to document a day in their lives, Gadhoke took her Nikon F10 to the Odenton MARC station near her home in Anne Arundel County. She took pictures of the starkly beautiful curved iron lampposts along the platform.
Ten minutes into her exercise, a police officer approached Gadhoke and asked what she was doing. She explained her assignment. The officer replied that three commuters and a train conductor had reported her for "suspicious activity." No one had said a word to Gadhoke.
See also this blog entry from Marc Fisher, author of the above words: Department of Photo Security--Redux.
Note that the police agencies mentioned in this story are not the same as the Maryland State Police (MSP), subject of my recent praise. Somehow, I don't believe that the MSP would normally want to spend their time investigating generally lawful activities such as photography.
By Marc Fisher
Sunday, February 26, 2006; C01
Preety Gadhoke isn't a famous artist. She's a graduate student in environmental health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. But she sees the world in ways she wants to express, and she's trying to do that through photography.
That's how she ran into the MARC police.
Gadhoke, 32, is taking the "Joy of Photography" course at the Smithsonian Resident Associate Program. One morning this month, after her teacher, Falls Church photographer Olive Rosen, assigned students to document a day in their lives, Gadhoke took her Nikon F10 to the Odenton MARC station near her home in Anne Arundel County. She took pictures of the starkly beautiful curved iron lampposts along the platform.
Ten minutes into her exercise, a police officer approached Gadhoke and asked what she was doing. She explained her assignment. The officer replied that three commuters and a train conductor had reported her for "suspicious activity." No one had said a word to Gadhoke.
See also this blog entry from Marc Fisher, author of the above words: Department of Photo Security--Redux.
Note that the police agencies mentioned in this story are not the same as the Maryland State Police (MSP), subject of my recent praise. Somehow, I don't believe that the MSP would normally want to spend their time investigating generally lawful activities such as photography.
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