Many of you may have read the recent news article that was posted regarding the new regulations from the NYC Transit Authority banning photography in the subways. You can read more about it at nycsubway.org.

The reaction from our community has been unified: alarm, disgust, anger, and disappointment. Though other cities around the world have already banned photography in its subways, New York City should not be in a rush to join them. We members of deviantART value the freedom of expression we have enjoyed in New York City, and we have an obligation to protect that freedom.

Below is the letter I have written to David Goldenberg, an agent with the NYC Transit Authority to whom letters and concerns should be addressed during this 45 day comment period. In it, I speak on behalf of all artists and photographers at deviantART, but I strongly urge all of you in the United States to write a letter yourself.

Only through making our disagreement with this proposed policy can we have any hope of changing it. My voice is but one, and alone it may not be effective. Let us raise a mighty chorus of protest to this ban on photography in the New York subways.

Contribute your voice to the cause! You can either write an email protesting the new regulations, or you can go a step farther - write an email to David Goldenberg, as I have done, making your dissent known.

Whether you're a resident of New York or a resident of any other state of the US, make your voice known. Maybe you live in a city elsewhere in the world where photography is banned in the city's subways - write and explain how those regulations stifle artistic expression.

Independently, our voices are small. Together, we can create a deafening roar that will wake the NYC Transit Authority from their slumberland where banning photography makes the world safer. Together, we can protect artistic expression.


David Goldenberg
New York City Transit Authority
130 Livingston Street, Room 1207
Brooklyn, New York 11201

Dear Mr. Goldenberg:

I understand completely the need for regulations that improve the security of the American people and the motivation behind the proposed changes to the Rules of Conduct made during the 2004 year. I believe the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) certainly had the city's best interests in mind when these changes were conceived. However, I am deeply concerned about the far-reaching ramifications of some of the proposed changes to the NYCTA and Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority (SIRTOA) Rules of Conduct. Sections 1040.4.f and 1050.9.c regarding the permissibility of photography and video photography are of particular concern to me. These new regulations are astonishingly short-sighted efforts to achieve well-meaning goals that cannot be addressed so awkwardly.

I am the Director of Artist Relations for deviantART, Inc., an online society of over 1.1 million registered artists and art appreciators. Photography comprises the largest active community of artists participating on our website. Their involvement ranges from the newest amateurs posting their photography in an attempt to receive some feedback to professional photographers selling prints of their artwork through the deviantART prints store. To whatever extent I may be allowed, I speak on behalf of all of these photographers. With a unified voice, then, we decry this proposed ban on photography in NYCTA and SIRTOA facilities as overbroad and ill-considered.

Society thrives on art. Art conveys our beliefs and values, the joys and fears of mankind onto later generations. Artistic expression is a celebration of who we are, what we have become, and what we have accomplished as a people. Art is also how the future learns about the past - we can learn about the history of a period in textbooks and manuscripts, but it is through the art left to us by past generations that we begin to understand the spirit of that age. Yes, even in an age where digital technology facilitates the preservation of every event in our lives from the monumental to the mundane, our progeny will learn about us from the art we leave to them.

That having been said, it is important to recognize that the ban on photography and video recording will result in the omission of such a prominent aspect of city life as mass transit from the art that artists our time will leave for posterity. Artists will be shunted and questioned, interrogated and ultimately denied. And to what end? Will New York City indeed be safer because the only photography that occurs is purely journalistic?

I hope that you will seriously consider the impact that these proposed changes to the rules of conduct would have on our future. You will not succeed in making New York safer by barring those amongst us who possess the gifts of insight and artistic vision from exercising those talents. I urge you to repeal these changes, to tear them down before the city of New York becomes unnecessarily inhospitable towards the artists who so enrich our culture.

Sincerely,
Eric Kolb
Director of Artist Relations
deviantART, Inc.