The last time Warren Wimmer tried to take a picture of Cloud Gate, better known as the Bean, a couple security guards rushed over on their Segways and tried to shoo him away. The exchange that followed is one of the wackier tales told by local photographers who can’t understand why the city wants to stop them from snapping pictures in Millennium Park–which is, after all, a public space.
Wimmer, a freelance photographer who sells photos of local landmarks to tourist shops, had his encounter with what he calls the “Bean police” at around 8 PM on Saturday, November 13, as he was about to shoot the Bean. “I had my tripod set up so I could get the night exposure correct, and these two guys on Segways swoop down on me,” he says. “One of the guards says, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘I’m taking pictures–what does it look like I’m doing?’ He said, ‘What are you taking pictures for?’”
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Wimmer says the guard handed him the clipboard and told him, “Put the 20 under the clipboard. Pretend you’re filling out the form, but don’t fill it out. And if anybody asks you, you can stay around for another half an hour or so.”
So the security guard was wrong when he told Wimmer he wasn’t allowed to shoot pictures of the Bean for a local newspaper. But it’s easy to see how the guy got confused, because the photo policy raises as many questions as it answers. Why, for instance, does the city distinguish between “journalists,” like Wimmer when he’s shooting pictures for the Chicago Sports Review, and “professionals,” like Wimmer when he’s turning his pictures into postcards? They’re both for-profit enterprises trying to make a buck using pictures of Millennium Park.
Horsch says that Uhlir himself came into his shop last summer to warn him against selling note cards of Millennium Park. “I said, ‘I’m doing note cards and magnets,’” says Horsch. “He said, ‘We’re going to shut you down.’”
