William,
During approximately the same time you were snapping pix for the Barb I
was doing same for the Los Angeles Free Press, another "counterculture"
weekly not credentialed by the police. My Free Press card was
worthless. I finessed that, for the most part, by being clean shaven,
wearing a sport jacket, sometimes a necktie and, more important, by
being polite to the authorities. That, and a Rollei connected to a
Honeywell electronic flash, got me through to the action most of the
time, although my costume was sometime problematical to many of those
on the other side of the police lines. On several occasions I almost
got killed. OTOH, I did get within touching distance of several
Presidents, although I'm not sure that is a proper equivalent.
There are sometimes security considerations that require the police to
verify the identities of press personnel, and I respect that. Every
time I have applied for press ID in those cases, they have been issued
to me without hassles.
Allen Zak
On Sep 22, 2005, at 2:08 AM, WILLIAM SCHILLEREFF wrote:
I remember back in the 1960's possessing a press card from the infamous "Burkley Barb." It was issued by the paper and the police decided not to recognize the press card of the free press paper. The issue was settled in court with a decision indicating the police dept could not decide who was a member of the press and their card was for id only. the PD could not abridge the rights of any reporter to work and it has gone down hill after that. For a time we were ridding high. With my Rollie no one ever looked further than the camera and made room for me. Later some small newspapers gave me card and others issued through the local PD. More important is having the pin to file pictures or stories.
There are some rally funny stories about crime scene and getting the shot. I like BW for this work but the switch to hi res color in the paper and the advent of developing machines at the paper and AP ran bw out of the news media. TXP 400 ... what a film!
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