Wired: photographer's beat is the underworld

From Wired.com: "Photographer Taryn Simon has spent the better part of the past decade crisscrossing the US in search of rarely documented, illicit, and sometimes brutal subjects. Her straightforward images capture everything from wrongly imprisoned men exonerated by DNA evidence to confiscated counterfeit watches to a mentally retarded tiger kept illegally in Arkansas."

 Read Q & A with photographer and see photos

Hey it's now legal to take pictures of buildings

In a recent settlement with the NYCLU, authorities in the U.S are now allowing photojournalists to take photos of public buildings. Wow. This is truly democracy at work. From the information bulletin that was issued by Homeland Security:

"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."

Hard to believe that this was an issue in the first place, but after 9/11 photographers have been harassed for photographing in public places in the U.S. and strange concept for a democratic nation.