Photography and freedom of expression. It’s not just the police that restrict it.

Following on from the irate gallery attendant who stopped me taking a photo in what I felt was a public space (see here), I would say that although many complaints photographers make against restrictions to freedom of expression involve the police, far less reported are incidences with security guards, public-space personnel (museums, galleries, swimming pools) and shop attendants. What it reveals is a wide mistrust of photographers. If you’re photographing, you’re seen as someone sinister, which is a view that the world is a dark and nasty place, where photographers are immediately suspicious.