FOLLOW . DEVIN CHRISTOPHER

“I respect your ambition but you gotta have vision.”

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:06:00 -0500

“I respect your ambition but you gotta have vision.”

0057511: Koopz - 20120204

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:14:01 -0500

0057511:

Koopz - 20120204

"Ironically, new technology has reinforced the nostalgic cultural gaze: now that we have instant..."

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:56:20 -0500

“

Ironically, new technology has reinforced the nostalgic cultural gaze: now that we have instant universal access to every old image and recorded sound, the future has arrived and it’s all about dreaming of the past. Our culture’s primary M.O. now consists of promiscuously and sometimes compulsively reviving and rejiggering old forms. It’s the rare “new” cultural artifact that doesn’t seem a lot like a cover version of something we’ve seen or heard before. Which means the very idea of datedness has lost the power it possessed during most of our lifetimes…

…We seem to have trapped ourselves in a vicious cycle—economic progress and innovation stagnated, except in information technology; which leads us to embrace the past and turn the present into a pleasantly eclectic for-profit museum; which deprives the cultures of innovation of the fuel they need to conjure genuinely new ideas and forms; which deters radical change, reinforcing the economic (and political) stagnation. I’ve been a big believer in historical pendulum swings—American sociopolitical cycles that tend to last, according to historians, about 30 years. So maybe we are coming to the end of this cultural era of the Same Old Same Old. As the baby-boomers who brought about this ice age finally shuffle off, maybe America and the rich world are on the verge of a cascade of the wildly new and insanely great. Or maybe, I worry some days, this is the way that Western civilization declines, not with a bang but with a long, nostalgic whimper.

”

- Kurt Anderson. “You Say You Want A Devolution?” Vanity Fair. 2012

Photo

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:50:14 -0500

UntitledSjoerd ten Kate

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:00:05 -0500

Untitled
Sjoerd ten Kate

oddfuture: GOLF WANG Releases Wednesday!!! And The Boys Are...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 10:37:24 -0500

oddfuture:

GOLF WANG Releases Wednesday!!! And The Boys Are Having A Book Signing At Family Book Store In Los Angeles. Vyron Turner, Wolf Haley, Lucas Vercetti, Brick Stowell, Taco Bennett, Julian Berman And Sagan Lockhart Will be Signing Copies Of The Book And Shit. Come Threw….Looking Clean

Pretty excited for Julian and the rest of these guys.

jaihall: MoRuf Two folks I back greatly.

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:27:35 -0500

jaihall:

MoRuf

Two folks I back greatly.

Julian and Rach in LA, 2011

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 02:18:00 -0400

Julian and Rach in LA, 2011

SR FALL 2011 PREVIEW / LOOKBOOK The Fall 2011 Preview &...

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 19:15:53 -0400

SR FALL 2011 PREVIEW / LOOKBOOK

The Fall 2011 Preview & Lookbook is now up.
Featuring Andre Lezama, photos by Devin Christopher, layout by Nathaniel Matthews

Nina, May 2011 Slowly getting back in the habit of updating....

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:54:40 -0400

Nina, May 2011

Slowly getting back in the habit of updating. I’m not the best at wanting to share online so bear with me..

koopz: Stray Rats Summer ‘11 lookbook now up

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 13:26:44 -0400

koopz:

Stray Rats Summer ‘11 lookbook now up

UntitledDan Wetmore

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:31:00 -0400

Untitled
Dan Wetmore

patrickjoust: “You’re making a mountain out of a...

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 13:15:47 -0400

patrickjoust:

“You’re making a mountain out of a molehill.”

-MTA police officer

…

Mike/boyghost has written a great little piece on the recent incident that transit enthusiast and photographer Christopher Fussell went through in Baltimore. I really admire Mr. Fussell’s stance on the issue. The officers obviously tried their best to intimidate him and he did a great job of fighting back with intelligence and reserve and without giving in.

…

boyghost:

A student from Portland, Oregon was stopped in Baltimore after videotaping and photographing the Light Rail system. He was briefly (48 minutes) detained by law enforcement and Maryland Transportation Authority public transit employees for questioning. During this “interview,” the officers throw out a lot of so-called “laws” justifying their requests that he stop photographing. The photographer stands his ground, politely asking for clarification on those laws and his status as a detainee.

This video is a great example of my number one gripe about the status of photography in the years since September 11th — that photographers and photography are inherently suspicious, that an interest in public photography is immediately cause for alarm, and that everyone is immediately entitled to a right to privacy in public places. Equally alarming is the fact that at no point during this 48 minute street interview is any official policy, regulation or law cited justifying the actions of the intervening officers.

A short time into the interview, one of the officers invokes the PATRIOT ACT as a law barring photography of critical infrastructure. While the PATRIOT ACT does in fact list “transportation” as a part of the nation’s critical infrastructure, it does not state the legality or illegality of photographing it. Perhaps the officer was thinking of a joint Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation (DHS-FBI) memorandum dated August 3, 2004 and titled “Suspicious Activity Reporting Criteria for Infrastructure Owners and Operators” which says, in part:

Report pedestrian surveillance near critical infrastructure/key resource facilities involving any surveillance activity of sensitive operations, including photography, videotaping, or extensive note-taking/use of audio recorder (regardless of the number of individuals involved), or mobile surveillance by cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats or small aircraft.

So yes, an operator of critical infrastructure is advised by DHS to report surveillance of critical infrastructure. But what of the legality of taking photographs? Can a person be arrested for taking a picture of trains?

Full disclosure, I am not a lawyer, nor do I pretend to understand the intricacies of Federal anti-terrorism laws and their ramifications on the rights of photographers. Therefore, I cannot provide a trustworthy interpretation of these laws and policies. I can not be held liable if you choose to use this post as an alibi if you get detained photographing something “critical.”

However, using publicly available documentation and the findings of actual lawyers, it is easy to establish that photographing anything and anyone in public or in public view is fair game. Photographing critical infrastructure, while certainly a cause for extra scrutiny, is not illegal. No law or statute has yet been released barring photographers from taking photographs of planes, trains, water towers, bridges, refineries, power plants, etc. In fact, a DHS memorandum I had earlier posted says this about the photography of federally owned and operated structures:

Law and enforcement and PSOs [Public Safety Officers] are advised to review the guidance provided in this IB [information bulletin] when encountering individuals photographing or videotaping the exterior of federal buildings and apply the guidance in the performance of their everyday duties to enhance the protection of federal facilities. It is important that law enforcement and PSOs uphold the public’s general right to photograph the exterior of federal structures while being vigilant with respect to to suspicious indicators of terrorist or criminal activity.

So the PATRIOT ACT says nothing of the legality of photographing critical infrastructure. There is no official guidance on the legality of photographing critical infrastructure. The DHS has acknowledged that individuals have the right to photograph federal facilities. And, according to the same memorandum,

Officers should not seize the camera or its contents, and must be cautious not to give such ‘orders’ to a photographer to erase the contents of a camera, as this constitutes a seizure or detention.

And here lies my greatest frustration with this whole debacle: officers are not fully aware of the policies they are upholding, real or imaginary. It would be one thing for an officer to ask a person why they are photographing something. I don’t believe there is any harm in approaching an individual and asking them what they are doing. However, the line is crossed when an individual is detained, questioned, and misled without any affirmative proof of the legality of their actions.

As photographers, professional or amateur, it is important to be aware of your rights. The young man in this video proactively and respectfully asked for his status as a detainee, which is important — if you are threatened with arrest, you must be made aware of the law you are breaking.

I have posted these before, but they are worth sharing again and again and again:

Photographer’s Rights card

Photojojo’s Ten Commandments of Photography

The Digital Photography School’s international rights cards

Happy shooting!

(20110530) Shooting in Miami

Tue, 31 May 2011 11:45:00 -0400

(20110530) Shooting in Miami

Images from Matt Eich’s ongoing photo series...

Sun, 29 May 2011 17:19:00 -0400

Images from Matt Eich’s ongoing photo series “Baptist Town”

David Oliver - I Wanna Write You A Love Song

Tue, 24 May 2011 09:44:00 -0400

David Oliver - I Wanna Write You A Love Song

After YEARS, YES, YEARS, my site is now an actual site, with...

Fri, 20 May 2011 16:55:00 -0400

After YEARS, YES, YEARS, my site is now an actual site, with images.

Thank you for everyone that has been involved thus far. The thing now is keeping it constantly updated. I know some may wonder why didn’t include some tearsheets or include very popular faces like the ones here, here, or here, but I’m still working on that department, and contemplating showing actual published work.

There’s too many names to list, but I want to say thank you to everyone putting up with my shit just for me to get to this point.

Please check out my site!

www.devinchristopher.com

Dominick Bui

Wed, 11 May 2011 19:08:29 -0400

Dominick Bui

koopz: Stray Rats Spring 2011 Zine by Nathaniel Matthews A...

Fri, 06 May 2011 16:32:58 -0400

koopz:

Stray Rats Spring 2011 Zine by Nathaniel Matthews

A good percentage of the images here were shot by me. It’s a start.

(20110421) L Elliot

Thu, 05 May 2011 15:25:59 -0400

(20110421) L Elliot