Stolen Locations

Stolen Locations 

 

The fact that the Homeland Security helicopter was spinning round with its nose pointed down at the water… like that thing helicopters do on TV when they're mad at someone… was alarming. The fact that everyone in it was looking directly at us, and some of them were holding automatic weapons, was more alarming. "wrap, wrap, wrap!" I called out to our tiny crew of  3…. 

 

The homeland security helicopter was actually the third helicopter that buzzed around the Statue of Liberty that morning while we were shooting “What If All Doors Were Open To All” for a major accounting firm.  The first two were relatively germane – but this one wasn’t kidding. It was much closer and much, much lower. Eye level to where we were standing… and it was full of men in helmets. We had seen a park ranger give us something like the side eye a few minutes before in civilian clothes, walkie-talkie on his belt… And we knew time was pretty short….   But this was surprising.

 

Generally, stealing a location isn't my style.   I've certainly done it – I don't know a photographer who hasn't… But sneaking a shoot on liberty Island is the big leagues. This was an unusual circumstance. Six months into the pandemic, really big opportunities for advertising photography assignments were hard to come by. When my phone rang on Friday afternoon to shoot an outdoor campaign, due Monday, I was certainly game to pay attention. I didn't ask a lot of questions like "who bowed out at the last minute"… That's above my pay grade. I was glad to get the call. The complication was that the campaign involved the Statue of Liberty – which is both a US State Park, a former military installation, a national landmark, and an area protected by the Department of Homeland Security. 

I am a responsible producer first. Liberty Island is controlled by Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island: Permit Office. "Ring them up" Producer Rachel helpfully suggested.

 

 "What's the timeline for getting permission to shoot one small child in front of the Statue of Liberty, on Liberty Island,  with a crew of three?"  The laughter in the background on the phone was audible. "Six weeks" they said.  Weekdays only. "When were you planning on shooting?" they asked.  "1st thing Sunday morning…" I said.  More laughing.  "There won't be too many visitors then… If you make it quick… But I didn't tell you that" they said. God bless New York. Things were different during the pandemic.

 

Come Sunday morning, up and at 'em, everything had gone according to plan.  I picked up Producer Rachel at the studio at dawn… We were at the ferry terminal in battery Park for the first ferry at 8 AM.   Noa, our nine-year-old talent, and her mother, had met us on time at the gate.  We brought a variety of wardrobe choices quickly sourced the night before, but honestly everything she had picked was just right.  A good friend had gone to Chinatown the night before and picked up some foam Statue of Liberty prop hats for me....  thanks Counselor...  and I think we used the ferry terminal to do a change of shirt because branding… But other than that things were looking right.  

(Geek Note) This was one of the last jobs for the Canon 5D Mark four for us - we made the strategic decision not to shoot this medium format digital because the Hasselblad is dramatically slower and we anticipated a very low ISO rating (100) so no real noise problems we couldn't address in post.   32 megapixel. We have since gone to the new mirrorless Canon stuff but some days I still miss the Analog mirror slam of SLR.

 

I did some initial camera test work with Noa against the south park railing, just to get her used to the kind of direction I was going to give, while we waited for the first ferry.  Basically, the same railing as the "Liberty Mutual" commercials.  If you visit that spot – the Statue of Liberty is *much* further away. Those commercials are created using a lot of post-production. We started with the 100 macro, then the 200 mm prime to compress the space.  Throughout the day, we cycled through the whole bag of lenses – the final images for the campaign were created with the EF 16-35 L ii that I've had for at least 15 years. These are daily driver lenses for me, and I trust them.   

 

The weather was perfect that day, as forecast. Deepest blue skies you've ever seen… Early October in New York. There was some "local pedestrian traffic" in battery park… We bought coffee and snacks to keep the residents of the park happy, and on our side and did some shooting from that vantage point. Before long we were on the Liberty Island ferry cutting across New York Harbor – maybe 25 people total on it – cutting through wakes - bumpity bump bump.

 

Our client on this shoot was actually J&L Communications – who create alot of large marketing campaigns on the East Coast.  Really smart people. They had provided us comps, so finding a spot that looked right wasn't that hard. There were some complications with railings and orange netting for parts of the area that were "ground under repair" that we had to frame out, but overall – it took us maybe 15 minutes to find a nice spot, unfurl a simple, reflector, and make some initial images.   Noa took direction like a champ – her mom was supportive, and we were the only people there at that moment.

 

I had maybe 350 + images in the camera when Baywatch arrived. I had up-linked a couple of them to my phone and shared them with Jennifer and Christian – our clients.   So we knew we had it.   And we knew the new game was now keeping it. These are camera, raw images – 25 megs or so, each-too large to uplink to take from the Camera via cellular. 

 

As we walked back to the ferry terminal, I put on Noa's foam Statue of Liberty hat… Did a quick change by stuffing my jacket into my camera bag… I completed the look with a "I ❤️ NY  T-shirt" and, most importantly, put my camera memory card under the footbed of my sneaker. I fully expected at this point to be arrested on the ferry.  I proceeded to fill up a blank card with nonsense images – photos of the statue, the gift shop, the water. I called my son at home and let him know I might be late for dinner…  gave Producer Rachel all my cash. I double checked my wallet for my global entry card, and anything else that might prove useful. "Don't shoot me I'm just the piano player"

 

Once back on the ferry, which makes stops at Liberty Island, as well as Ellis island on the return – there wasn't much else to do but continue to fill up the memory card.  NY Skyline… Verrazano, Narrows Bridge… Some really lovely New York waterway photography that ended up getting used as well.  I nobody seemed to pay us much mind, and I started to wonder if I was just being paranoid.

 

As we approached the New York ferry terminal… there were two black homeland security Escalade's pulled right up to the front gate. I'm not making this up. There were a bunch of guys standing around them looking bored.  Suits.  glasses.  Coffee cups.  I assumed that I'd get to know all of them fairly shortly… as the ferry bumped up against the pylons and was tied on to the dock. 

 

I think it was Producer Rachel who spotted the other exit. Looking from the water to Manhattan, there's another exit at the far-right end of the docking area – there's no building or anything, but we made a beeline for it.  Just walking like we belonged, having said goodbye to Noa and mom.... We took the long way round the park… I had ditched my Statue of Liberty hat, but I kept the I ❤️ NY shirt because… After all… I do ❤️ NY.   Just a tourist couple walking with a small camera bag on the way to Times Square.

 

Once we were back in the car a few blocks away – 11:30 AM on a Sunday morning… Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief as we started moving up the W. Side Drive.  Were the homeland security gents there for someone else? Did they simply not know that there were two exits? 90% of the people who exit that boat go back to the gift shop area.  I'll never know. I promised my own personal angels that if I got away with this one, I would mend my ways and (almost) never steal another New York location. 

 

It was several months later that I went to look at the billboard campaign. People told me it was big, but I really wasn't prepared for two city blocks long. Eventually, I took my mom over to have a look at it…  just so she know that I wasn't hanging around pool halls again.   A friend took my picture in front of it… That sort of thing. it's stayed up for about 18 months and I'm told they made the actual silk print into 1000 tote bags. 

 

I've been doing this 22 years and that's the physically largest print of mine that's ever existed. It's nice to know that you can make that from fairly straightforward Canon raw images. It was a meaningful progressive statement – I had the good fortune to get the call, and I remain grateful to everyone who helped make it happen. 

Photo by Aydin Arjomand