The NYC Subway (1/7/05) Photo Gallery by Man-Fai Wong at pbase.com

The NYC Subway (1/7/05)

1/7/05: Please sign this petition ASAP to help defeat the ban proposal!
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/notransitpicban

You can also send the MTA your comments directly via this page on their site -- just choose "Rules of Conduct Comment" for your category:
http://mta-nyc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/mta_nyc.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php?p_prod_lvl1=2&%20p_cat_lvl1=12

12/17/04: Well, the MTA is officially back to their original ban proposal again, and it looks like they might be using this holiday season to pull a fast one on us(!). :-(
http://www.nydailynews.com/11-30-2004/news/story/257474p-220531c.html
http://www.nycsubway.org/photoban.html

9/16/04: Well, looks like the MTA is backing off on their original ban proposal afterall though not completely. I'd been waiting for news on this for a while and had already begun suspecting this. Here's one article on this news:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/231470p-198751c.html

6/16/04: The NY MTA has recently proposed a ban on cameras in the subways. A sad time, but it's still only a proposal so far, and there is a 45-day period for public comment going on right now. If you care about this issue, let your voice be heard even if you live outside NYC and/or the USA since tourism matters to NYC -- and tourists are some of the most likely shooters in the subways. Today, it's the NYC subway, but tomorrow, it could easily be many other public places around NYC, the USA or most anywhere else in the world. And yes, while I too am concerned about terrorism, this is no way to address it.

Check out these links for other older articles on the proposed ban:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/21/nyregion/21subway.html?8hpib
http://www.wnbc.com/traffic/3328661/detail.html
http://www.ny1.com/ny/TopStories/SubTopic/index.html?topicintid=1&subtopicintid=1&contentintid=40174
http://villagevoice.com/issues/0423/haber.php (There's a photo contest too)

And what the Straphangers Campaign is doing about the ban proposal, including a poll, contest, petition, etc:
http://www.straphangers.org/photoban/index.htm

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IMG_0171x.JPG Next stop?	IMG_0915x.JPG After rush hour	IMG_0918x.JPG Ho hum, off we go	IMG_1857.JPG After Midnight
IMG_1858.JPG Rails in motion	IMG_1901x.JPG Exit to Wonderland?	DSC_0249.JPG	DSC_0247.JPG
Dsc_0817.jpg Magazine Cover	DSC_1995.JPG Attitude	DSC_1460.JPG	Dsc_0644.jpg Avoiding "eye" contact

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comment |

Magnus Andersson		05-Feb-2005 15:58
Love your shots of people in the subway. This candid, everyday life, photography captures me everytime. Love it. Read about the photo-ban. It's ridiculous. I don't live in the US, live in Sweden, and this kind of ban is not the way to fight terrorism. What are they gonna ban next? sketchbooks? "The land of the free" is losing it's face more and more, sadly the world is starting to laugh at the USs "war on terrorism". You don't fight terrorism by harrasing honest people and deprieving them their basic freedom. I will absolutly sign the petition and tell my NYC friends to do the same. Cheers. /Magnus, Sweden

Man-Fai Wong		05-Oct-2004 13:37
Hi, Alice. Thanks for the appreciation. About your questions, I generally do not hide or anything like that when I shoot. Often, people are indeed aware of my shooting. And unless they are totally immersed in something and oblivious to their surroundings, they probably would also notice that I have my camera out the entire time. Occasionally, I do get questions from people, and on rare occasion, people are particularly upset w/ it in which case I offer to just delete the images. I treat the photos as documentary type images for the most part and respect the subjects as people in public places (as best I know how) -- and I do not do so for financial gain -- so in general, it seems ok to me to post them as such. If I were to go beyond that, then yes, I would need explicit permission, which I have started considering doing actually (and probably also provide some sort of "business" contact card as well). Yes, this does seem like a gray issue, and I certainly may come to see it differently at some point. But for now, that is where I stand. And again, thanks for your kind, thoughtful feedback. _Man_

Alice Mutasa		05-Oct-2004 12:54
Great photos; but how d'you get all these pictures of people without them being aware they're being photographed? & don't you sometimes feel there are some issues around putting up photos of people without their permission? (Or did you ask all these people?).

Rod Lau		28-Sep-2004 20:56
Nice photos capturing the uderground.

Man-Fai Wong		01-Jun-2004 05:23
Thanks, Sean. Glad you enjoyed the visit. Kind regards, _Man_

Seanbert		12-May-2004 08:30
Some very interesting here Thanks for sharing! Cheers Sean

click on thumbnails for full image