100 rally at D&G store over photo ban

Professional photographers yesterday joined the ranks of more than 100 protestors outside Dolce & Gabbana's Tsim Sha Tsui store.

Members of RGB, a society of around 200 professional photographers in Hong Kong, said the Italian fashion house was among numerous couture companies who tried to bar people from taking pictures of their shop windows. 'This happens to us on a daily basis,' said Graham Uden, a freelance photographer who had rallied his colleagues around the issue. 'It affects our ability to work in Hong Kong.'

Last year, one of Uden's clients wanted a simple picture of a shopper walking down the street. He happened to be shooting in front of a prominent French fashion house, just down Canton Road from Dolce & Gabbana, when he was surrounded by five security guards sent from the building. They told him he was not allowed to take pictures because the store owned the space from the storefront to the kerb.

Hong Kong law does not forbid photography in public spaces, but photographers have been stopped outside various government buildings, the IFC, and luxury stores.

'It's like if you're carrying a camera, you must not be good,' said Carsten Schael, another freelance photographer.

Last week, a Dolce & Gabbana security guard's comments incited fury on the web when he claimed to allow only mainlanders or foreign tourists to take photos outside the store while stopping Hongkongers.