The historic West Bottoms district of Kansas City is fighting back against photographers. They’ve been battling what seems to only be describable as a “swam” of photographers taking over the area for photo shoots. It’s a beautiful place, photographically speaking, so the draw for photographers is obvious. But these local business owners have had enough. They’ve had photographers coming up to use their buildings as photographic backdrops to the point of not only hindering the operation of their business but also blocking entire streets. The business owners have even gotten to the point of putting up “No Trespassing” signs with the words “No Photography” written on them.
Sure, as a photographer, you have a job to do. But so do the people whose businesses these photographers are interfering with. These are people actually paying rent to run a business at these properties. People whose livelihood depends on being able to actually run their business, that these photographers are regularly preventing.
I’d be particularly upset if I was a legitimate photographer in the area getting a bad reputation purely because of idiots with cameras that have no consideration for other people – as is the case with one person interviewed in the report above. How anybody can think it’s ok to just rock up on somebody else’s private property, especially while they’re trying to run a business and do a photo shoot is absolutely beyond me. [via FStoppers]
