WOULD-BE PHOTOGRAPHER OUTLAWS

Not content to sit by while a proposed ban on picture-taking in the New York subway system, a group of photographers are planning a peaceful protest that involves, well, picture-taking in the subway.

The photographers interviewed by the Village Voice for its article spoke eloquently. Eliot Shepard, a computer programmer, said the following:

We have been conditioned to accept ever-greater incursions on our liberties in the name of security. But no one has advanced a coherent argument for how banning photography in public areas of the subway — not tracks and switchrooms mind you, but trains and platforms — has any effect whatsoever on security.

The Voice, in a ploy that might as well have come from the pages of screwthegovernment.com, is sponsoring a subway photo contest. And yes, I entered the contest.