A Photo I Did Not Want to Take

The story behind is weird

Here’s a photo I shot on Ilford XP2. It’s boring. It’s a photo I would not have taken had there not been a weird story behind it. Photo first.

This is the shopping mall in Hong Kong’s International Finance Centre 2. My wife went to the bathroom and I was waiting for her. I was one floor above the atrium. I had my camera on me. So I did what I often do, looking through the range finder to see if there’s anything interesting. This photo was one of the directions I looked in. When I decided there was nothing, I lowered my camera only to find a mall security in front of me. He said with a straight face: “You cannot take photos here.” It was the first time I’d heard such a “rule.” This was one of Hong Kong’s most fancy and popular malls, and many people came just to take photos. Confused, I asked him: “Why?” He repeated: “You cannot take photos here.” After a few rounds of the same question and answer, he called for BACKUP. BACKUP! Two more security guys showed up. Guy one told the two newbies what happened and the two started repeating the same thing I’d heard at least fives times by now. And yet, no one seemed even remotely interested in answering my question: “Why?” As this one vs three standoff dragged on, I could see in the atrium below, people were taking photos left and right. And then, guy one left, leaving his two fellow parrots with me repeating the same line. It almost felt like they were programmed to do that one thing. And it started to tick me off. I wasn’t gonna take any photos I had decided, but now I changed my mind. I raised my camera, and I told them: “Tell me why I’m not allowed to take a photo here, or I am taking one.” And guess what they said? I became more amused than angry. So I raised my camera, framed the shot, focused, waited for a person to get on the escalator, and shot this photo. The two men just stood there watching me and did nothing. After I took the photo, one guy said: “You cannot take photos here.” As I walked past them, and they didn’t stop me or even look at me. They just walked away. After this bizarre episode, I asked my friends if there was such a thing. No one had an answer. And I was left with a photo I didn’t want, and a strange tale to tell. Happy weekend!