My plan to stay indoors for the duration of the sweltering hot yesterday was intruded upon when I remembered that I had an appointment to get an idNYC card at 5pm at LaGuardia Community College. With the card I expect to get free one year memberships to a bunch of museums, and use it as a single library card for all 3 library systems in town.
LAGCC was the site of my first post-corporate professional photography assignment. The only previous journalistic photo run I did was at CNN, on September 17, 2001, when the New York Stock Exchange re-opened for the first time since 9/11. Two of my pictures were used. This photo is still on line at this location (CNN.com) but I cannot find the other story where they used another larger image and even gave me a photo credit.
Helping to cover the Stock Exchange re-opening was memorable for many reasons, but so too was the less dramatic assignment at LAGCC. I was assigned to cover the annual opening and rededication of the college’s Hall of Flags, LAGCC’s signature … thing. I was going to call it an “attraction” but I don’t think the general public is allowed to see it. it is the college’s signature thing that you cannot see.
All I needed to do was get a picture of the flags and go home, but I stayed around for the hour+ long dedication ceremony, which featured appearances by local politicians and speeches by some of the college professors.
I entered the building with a camera, saying I was there to get photos of the Hall of Flags rededication. The first person I talked to was not a security guard. I don’t remember his role but he seemed pleased that the event would get some publicity. I had no identification to prove I was with the paper I was working for but he waved that off. I guess I looked “ok” in those nascent post-9/11 days of universal suspicion.
I ambled along, then, thinking I had passed the test and been given press access to the building, when an actual security guard spotted me, poked my shoulder, asked me who I was and what did I think I was doing here. I said I’d gotten clearance from “that gentleman”, pointing in his direction.
This security guard was not pleased. His eyeballs jiggled in their sockets. He had a look of murder in his eyes as he slowly turned away from me, seeming to fear I would escape as soon as I left his field of vision. He interrogated the other individual who had allowed me in. Minutes passed. More minutes. I could not hear their whispered discussion. Feeling like I was being screened for entry to the cockpit of a jumbo jet I was eventually, with the wave of a hand, allowed to freely roam the buildings of the college.
There were 2 other photographers present. Their photo gear was far more expensive than mine, and they were far more aggressive in getting their lenses right into the snouts of the speakers and participants. It seemed they were using this relatively low-key event to get their Pulitzers. While those professionals assumed all manner of acrobatic paparazzi style poses I stood back and just used a zoom lens. I think those guys were with Newsday and the Daily News. I already got the shot I was told to get so the rest was just for fun.
I was supposed to get paid $10 for the job, but the check never came. The editor assured me the check was sitting on his desk and that he would send it ASAP. I don’t know if he ever sent it but it never got here. I sent one more photo to this paper, of a school bus that had crashed and fallen to its side. That same editor said this shot would no doubt make the cover of the next issue. Cover photos paid a munificent $20. That never happened, either, and thus ended my career in photojournalism.
Something a little unsettling about yesterday’s registering for idNYC. A young woman sitting across from me was approached by man who asked “Are you from Brooklyn?” She smiled and said no, that she was from Queens, but he feigned disbelief, saying something to the effct that she had to at least spend a lot of time in Brooklyn. I don’t know pickup lines but “Are you from Brooklyn?” sounds pretty weak. She did not seem to mind the attention at first but when it became evident that he had no real business being there (except that he was a student at the school) she became somewhat visibly nervous. He just stood there, poking at his smartphone, peppering her with questions punctuated by long minutes of silence. She never rebuffed him outright but she did offer an out: she had a class at 5:30, and it was a little after 5pm. She was waiting to get an idNYC. The dude was just waiting for her to respond to his conversational entreaties. He was never rude or inappropriate, just determined. She went in to the room where you get your picture taken and everything for the idNYC. He waited. She could have exited that room and the building out of his line of sight. Sensing that he stood in a spot where he could see when she exited that room. As she left she appeared not to see him. I don’t think she was faking that. She rushed down the hall to get to her 5:30 class. He followed. 20 or so feet down the hall I heard his voice utter words indistinguishable to me. She turned around to see him. They stopped walking and shook hands. My name was called and I went in to the room she had just exited, probably taking the seat she had occupied.
