The Pentagon Pictures
OK, long story short. I'm in DC for the weekend. My first stop after getting off the plane at Reagan National was two stops up the blue line at the Pentagon. I went to the 9/11 memorial on the far side of the building. I shot some pictures of the benches that make up the memorial, then I started taking some shots of the block on the side of the Pentagon itself that is engraved September 11, 2001. After only ten or so pictures, a policeman wanders over and tells me I can't take pictures of the Pentagon and demands that I delete all my pictures. After a few half-hearted arguements, I comply.
But as I sulk away, I think to myself, those pictures aren't really deleted, they're just marked as deleted. So I pop out that chip and put in another one to shoot in any direction but the building. When I got back to my friends house tonight, I downloaded some recovery software, and viola! There are the deleted pictures. And here are three of the pictures that the Pentagon police didn't want you to see. Threat to National security? Hardly. Just some shots of a charred piece of sandstone through a pentagonal hole in an iron fence. Enjoy!
That policeman was full of bovine excrement. The visual arts (photography included) are as much a part of the first amendment as free speech. What good is free speech if you don't have the images to back it up? The attack on photography these days is outrageous.
ReplyDeleteThe Security folk seem to be bent over double with stupid. Did you hear about the no dancing at the Jefferson Memorial imbroglio? We the People seem to be getting a lot of Police Stateism in the Land of the Free.
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