As many Cape Town photographers, will or should know the city is clamping down on public photo-shoots, requiring that photographers apply for permits to be allowed to shoot with models in public spaces, regardless of the nature of the shoot.

While I understand why the city wants to have control, the current system has a number of flaws, especially when it comes to non-commercial shoots with just a model and a photographer or a small team.

With the current process, we have to apply online, which I have no issue with in principal, however we can only apply during normal working hours, we need to specify a location and we need to wait up to 48 hours for the application to be approved.

This is an unacceptable and unworkable situation as many of our test and smaller shoots are last-minute and often require last-minute location changes.

There are only two options that I can see be workable.

1)      The first choice would be that small shoots with 4 or fewer people and minimal gear are exempt for requiring a permit to shoot but will need to comply with the following:

1. The City will publish a daily list of all “authorised” shoots which will have preference over small shoots with no permits.
2. These shoots will be listed as “no access”, “restricted access” or “ask permission” from the permit holder and all small shoots will need to comply with the conditions.

2)      This probably will not suit the city due to the requirement that the photographers need to have Public Liability insurance so the second option is that the city must provide a 7 day per week permit approval process, free of charge, with a minimal turnaround time, say not exceeding 12 hours. This option still restricts the freedom to change locations at the last-minute but I am sure we can learn to live with it.

If the issue is solely one of indemnity then why doesn’t the city start a certification process whereby photographers have to signup once a year for a city photo permit that give them Public Liability insurance through the city, indemnifies the city and will cost far less for the city to administer than the permit process they currently have in place?

Given that the City does not want to engage in debate with us over this I would suggest that we as Cape Town photographers organise a mass protest on one of the beaches and continue with these until the city adopts a workable system…

Update 30^th January 2012

This raising of this issue has received a lot of support from the Cape Town Photographic community during the last 24 hours discussions have raised the following points:

• Given the number of small and test shoots that happen during the week, the film office is going to be swamped if all small shoots are to be permitted and will not be able to cope with the load.
• Many of Cape town’s occupants use public spaces for activities like:
  • Cycling
  • Roller blading
  • Beach Cricket
  • Skate Boarding
  • Running
  • Playing with Frisbees
  • Flying Kites
  • Surfing
  • Kite surfing

Some of these activities pose a risk to the public but the participants are not required to register and produce proof of Public Liability insurance, so it is prejudicial to photographers to expect them to have to.

Update 2nd February 2012

I just spoke to the manager of the film office at the City of Cape Town and while the City has been consulting with professional bodies, like SAAP, these are production companies who do not represent or necessarily understand the needs of individual photographers. The City will not engage us individually so we need to form a association so that our voices are heard. In this light, I hereby launch the Cape Town professional Photographers Association.

Please email me on Email CTPPA and include the following:

That you wish to join the CTPPA and for it to appoint representatives to represent you by engaging with the City towards finding a workable solution to the film permit issue.

Please let everyone know about this as we need to start talking to the City now due to the fact that it could take months to change City policy.

This week something very disturbing occurred on twitter and it’s something as a South African male that I find very concerning.

I was going to post this to my private blog but I really felt it was important enough to go out publicly here on my website.

It all began with a very controversial and IMO misguided project called the Jugcam which was started by @followthebounce on twitter. The whole idea of this project was to look for and photograph girls with “Great Boobs” at cricket matches and then post the pics on twitter.

It was never intended that permission would be gotten from the girls, just that the pics would be posted and this would be fine. I do believe that @followthebounce has decided to get permission in future but…

Unsurprisingly, a lot of girls on twitter got really offended by the Jugcam and demanded it be stopped and it ended up with girls against guys with the girls taking a lot of abuse for their standpoint. Yes the whole issue is a complex one and there is a lot from both sides that needs to be considered here but right down underneath it all there was a very fundamental problem that arose and that is that it seems that a lot of of SA’s male population do not believe that woman have a right to complain when it comes to things like jugcam and should just shut up.

That’s quite a statement for me to be making but it’s clearly there in 140 character tweets and I know that many guys out there now regard me as public enemy number 1 but guys think about this, the girls said NO and what did most of you do? You didn’t listen to the NO, you didn’t take time to try understand why they were upset (and let’s face it, girls can be very complex but they also have feelings and opinions) in fact all many of you stared to do was hurl abuse at them, insult them and then do what many SA men seem so good at doing, beat them into submission, albeit in this case verbally and in packs. Yes some of the girls also started slinging mud but that was unavoidable seeing how some of them were being treated.

Some of the girls were called “over reactionary feminists” or “Feminazi’s” some far worse.

Some of the guys said things like how were we supposed to know its wrong or that girls would get upset but when the girls voiced this, many of those same guys just got pissed off.

Seriously guys, yes this article is going to piss many of you off but at the end of the day you have to go back and think about one word, NO.

It seems from this last week that we as South Africans have a huge problem with the word NO. SA girls for the most part are ignored when they use it and a lot of SA guys see it not as something that must be listed to, but rather as an opportunity to show their dominance and to just bully the girls into submission. There is a word for that and it’s not dominant, it’s called abusive!

OK as a guy what did you do last time your girlfriend said NO when it came to something. Be honest here because this is important and if you lie, it’s only yourself you are lying to.  Did you sit back and accept the NO, try understand why she was saying NO, or did you do your best to coerce or bully her into changing the NO to a yes? There is no one listening to your answer but you and you can try lie to yourself but then you will still know the truth deep down.

Guys, girls are so much more than just a set of legs with breasts attached and a great sex toy. Some of the guys reading this have already figured this out but I am sorry to say that it looks like many of you still need to discover the wonders of a female partner who you can appreciate for her mind as well as her body.

It’s quite simple and a lot of what’s currently happening to women in SA starts with us guys learning the meaning of NO and learning to respect it.

Just think what would happen if all of us SA men started to respect the women around us and started to respect NO. Think of how many less abused women there would be in SA and how many fewer girls there would be who were being bullied into having sex.

The Jugcam debacle was a perfect example where you as guys could have said, OK, we don’t know what the big deal is but we will respect that the girls don’t like it but unfortunately that didn’t happen.

Guys seriously whether you like it or not you need to work on being one of those guys that when they are asked, do you listen to your girlfriend and respect her wishes can without hesitation say YES.

As for the girls, you need to learn to stand up and make sure that NO means NO and that guys around you understand that you have a right to  an opinion and a right to voice it without being shot down for voicing it.