And then the cops came...

So today I was shooting for my black and white photography class (film - gasp!) out between Beering and Recitation Halls.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Purdue campus, there is a random - and pointless - brick wall between these two buildings.

My goal for the day was to shoot one roll of film (36exp) of nothing but portraits of people walking by me.

I taped up a white sheet (since my instructor wasn't able to score me any white seamless... :( ) and a small sign saying "free portraits." As people were walking by I politely introduced myself and asked if they could spare a few seconds of their time to help me with my project and, in return, I would email them a copy of the photo once it was developed so they could send it home to mom, dad, wife, whatever.

Things were going pretty well, 25%-ish of the people I asked were kind enough to spare 15 seconds to help.

About an hour (and 26 frames) later, a Purdue Police officer came and told me that I was not allowed to "do that."

When I asked her why, she started talking about not having reserved the space to set anything up, not having waivers signed, and that I wasn't allowed to ask people for their email addresses, etc (almost all of which is false).

Stupidly, I neglected to snap a photo of the officer or get her information - she basically ran off as soon as my back was turned (however the people at the OSRR were able to Identify her by her description quite quickly which makes me wonder if she has caused them problems in the past to...).

Not feeling like getting arrested today, I obliged the officer and took down my sheet and headed to Schleeman Hall (an administration building) where I started to talk with the kind people at the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities.

I explained to them my story, and they were quite confused because A) they have never had a complaint like this and B) they weren't quite sure what was wrong seeing as there is no provision about photography in the 2009/2010 Purdue University Regulations guide (which I now have a copy of that lives in my camera bag).

After about 15 minutes of pondering, looking things up, and discussing, we decided that nothing I was doing was wrong or illegal, however I did not have the 'space' reserved (mind you this is a bed sheet taped flat against a useless brick wall).

Needless to say, I will be calling space management tomorrow to reserve this wall for the rest of the semester so that I will not have any more run-ins with the Purdue Police, or if I do, I can kindly tell them to - as the ever so wise Fonzie would say - "sit on it."

I'm glad to see the Purdue Police are keeping the campus safe - one photographer at a time.