News

Ansel Adams Act Would Protect the Right to Photograph Wilderness Areas and Police and Government Officials

Dan Havlik  |  Jan 14, 2015

"Ansel Adams and camera," photo by J. Malcolm Greany. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

In the wake of a controversial federal plan that would force photographers to buy a pricey permit to film on federal wilderness areas, a new act named after one of America’s most famous and beloved photographers has been proposed. The bill, called the Ansel Adams Act, would also allow photographers to record the actions of police and government employees in the line of duty.

The proposed legislation would protect “both landscape photographers who document publicly protected wilderness and journalists who document police behavior, both benign and controversial,” according to Esquire, which first reported news of the legislation.

“The photography by Ansel Adams and other famous photographers helped bring home to Americans the beauty and fragility of our natural resources,” the bill states.

“Ansel Adams' photographs helped build public support to make Yosemite into a National Park. Future 'Ansel Adams' must not have their paths blocked, regulated and made more expensive with fees and fines, or be threatened with arrest and seizure of their equipment.”

The bill is the brainchild of Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) who introduced the Ansel Adams Act on January 2, 2015, the day before leaving office. (Stockman ran for U.S. Senate in the 2014 election but lost in the Republican primary to incumbent Senator John Cornyn.)

Now that Stockman is no longer in Congress, the fate of the legislation remains in doubt. According to Esquire, the bill is currently stranded in committee and since it has no co-sponsors, it needs to be re-introduced by another member of Congress to stay alive.

You can read the full text of the Ansel Adams Act here.

(Via Esquire)

COMMENTS
bghooke's picture
Submitted by bghooke on January 14, 2015 - 6:13pm

While I'm very much in favor of the concept of this bill as presented here (having made lots of photographs on public land) I do wonder if it was drafted as a backdoor way to allow, say, a Hollywood movie crew to roll in and set up "camp," Hollywood style, in the middle of a national park while they film a movie, or an ad company to roll in and film an advertisement without paying anything for the privilege. The National Park Service and other related Federal agencies should have the right to impose reasonable restrictions on this sort of activity. I can't tell from what I've seen about this bill whether this would be an issue. It also seems reasonable for a Hollywood movie crew or ad production company to pay a bit for the right to film on public land. Someone to hauling around even a large-format still camera is a very different thing from a full movie production crew with actors, extras, support staff and so on!

Given the strongly anti-environmental stance of the Representative who introduced this bill, I'm pretty suspicious of his motives.

DenManF35C's picture
Submitted by DenManF35C on January 16, 2015 - 3:15pm

Regulating film crews at a national park would be very easy to achieve and is much less of an inconvenience to a studio who can do so much with set designs and computer graphics. The problem lies directly at the feet of the American public who everyday are seeing their first Amendment rights being violated in public places. As someone who takes photos of airplanes at airports it has become more and more difficult to ply my hobby. The police presence investigating someone with a camera in public areas will most likely end with an Aviation Enthusiast being asked to leave, despite their rights to photograph in public areas. This is especially true of those of us who use larger telezoom lens. It seems to draw attention of regular citizens who see us as being terrorists. As more and more DSLR cameras become popular, people need to be educated about long lens cameras. I see our freedoms being eroded more and more and if this Bill would help alleviate that issue then I am all for it.

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