No Trespassing

"Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist”- Pablo Picasso

The forbidden fruit, on the other side of the no access sign, waiting behind the locked door. The new, but dangerous perspective high up on that roof you don’t have permission to access, drawing you closer and closer as you move beyond locks and barricades with one vision in mind.

The unlimited amount of new perspectives that exist now, made possible via drones, constantly reaching for new heights in a no fly zone.

Photographers have always pushed the boundries of whats possible, continuously searching for that new scene. Nowadays, everything has been done before, and everyone has a camera. So, what makes a photo special?

No Trespassing highlights completely unique images from uniquely illegal perspectives, rules creating boundaries of the mind, limiting whats possible. Today, only those daring enough to bend the rules can capture new scenes.

Human psychology strangely leaves some obedient, following order, cueing in line, while others question what are these rules and who wrote them? Acknowledging them as a list of orders written from other mere mortals. Sure, we are free beings with free will and free choice, but limited to these lists of rules.
We are free to do anything... but this, or that, which is commanded unto us as prohibited.

In the ongoing quest of creating new imagery, sometimes you come away unscathed, in possession of amazing photos that are unique to the world. Other times, you end up in a police car or sleeping in a jail cell.

“Magnifique, Incroyab! Regard cette photo!” I heard as I was anxiously awaiting what would happen next. The police showing my freshly captured drone photos of Paris to each other. 2 minutes later we were sitting in the back of a police car going 106 kmh through the city almost hitting pedestrians to rush to the station across town. “Sure, this photo is amazing, but it’s forbidden.” Sounds like something straight out of 1984...

Upon arriving at the garde a vue, I am eager to explain to so that I can be released at once. The first guy that appears only says to me: You Sleep Here. Someone will speak to you in the morning..

20 hours later, I was a free man. No sleep, no food, missed flight, no more drone, deleted photos, and quite the story to tell. The countless seconds that pass when in a cell for hours on end, can either spark insanity or creativity, and in my case it was this series.

There is no reward without risk yet there is a price to pay for breaking the law.

As a photographer there is a calling within, leading to the everlasting pursuit of finding and capturing new perspectives of life, and creating photos that haven’t been taken before - pushing photographers to the edge of legality, and sometimes beyond.

Rules are meant to be broken and boundaries are meant to be pushed. No Trespassing is a study of “illegally” captured photographs, on foot and in air, little adrenaline rushes, and a new feast for the eyes. Rest In peace to the photos deleted, the the drones confiscated.

Boundaries exist only in the mind, new photographic angles are waiting to be explored.

Phillip Silverstein

 

The World Is Yours •

The World Is Yours •