Thursday, April 9, 2009
Visual Art The Power of Photography (Or A Briefcase)
Posted by Jen Graves on Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 9:18 AM
I love this story. The head of the British anti-terror department has had to resign because he was photographed getting out of a car yesterday, carrying—in plain sight—a secret document describing a major operation. See the image here.
The cops had to move up the operation and make the arrests immediately, although it's not clear to me whether that was the only information on that page. (How long will it be before a zoomed-in version of that image appears on the web today?)
And to make matters worse, this is not the first time that the photographer who snapped this picture has had to remind British officials not to carry sensitive papers out in the open.
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2
In the American military, classified documents are required to be carried in a FOLDER.
Sometimes, common solutions are the best soluitions.
Sometimes, common solutions are the best soluitions.
5
It's kind of sad. That guy's career is over. But if you love stories of other people's suffering, by all means.
7
It's not sad that the guy's career is over - he's a fucking imbecile for Christ's sake. Do you really think an idiot like that deserves to have a responsible position?
8
I wonder just how visible the pages actually are. We all "know" from the movies that you can zoom in indefinitely with the magic of compyooters, easily picking out license plate numbers and stray public hairs from a thousand yards away, but in real life it's not that easy. You can't resolve beyond the grain of the film or the pixel size of the sensor.
9
It was pretty visible - especially since all you're after is black on white. While you'll lose definition in a zoom, with any professional camera the original file size is so large that won't be a problem. Any fuzziness could be offset through image processing to resolve the words more clearly.
10
Jen,
You mentioned photography and death in two successive posts. Does this make you think of anything you may have missed?
You mentioned photography and death in two successive posts. Does this make you think of anything you may have missed?
11
@9, maybe. I haven't seen any original photos, though. There's no telling how much that picture's been cropped. I haven't seen anyone say you COULD make out names, only that you MIGHT BE ABLE TO make them out. Even at 21 megapixels like a Mark II I'm slightly skeptical.
14
@7 No, I think he should of lost his job, and yes he is a fucking imbecile for Christ's sake, but to fall in love with the story shows some serious character flaws.
15
Check out the photographers site, you can see that he's got some pretty close up pictures there. No doubt these are merely thumbnails compared to the size of the original pictures. I don't think it's any stretch to assume that they can read every word.
http://politicalpictures.co.uk/index.php…
http://politicalpictures.co.uk/index.php…
16
And if this had been an American official committing the same mistake? Do we really think an American would have taken personal responsibility and resigned? We know in the Bush Administration there would have been a long campaign of denial, accusations against the photographer, and probably a medal awarded after the guy resigned 4 months later "to spend more time with his family". Sandy Berger proved that this type of weaselness extends to both parties.
Why is it that officials in other countries are more willing to accept blame/responsibility than those in the good ol' US of A?
Why is it that officials in other countries are more willing to accept blame/responsibility than those in the good ol' US of A?
18
@10, @17, I commented a mention of Levitt with a link to her photos the day she died.
Maybe you're right about the pics. I was just wondering. Interesting that they've been whited out on that site.
Maybe you're right about the pics. I was just wondering. Interesting that they've been whited out on that site.
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