How to Photograph the Time Warner Center

While the tale of the NY Times photographer who was told by Time Warner Center security that she could not take pictures rang true for Gothamist, it is possible to take photographs at the Time Warner Center. Bluejake has done so on two occasions (1, 2). We feel the key is to go into the Time Warner Center with a distraction, say a louder fall guy/gal who is snapping happily away whom security will gravitate towards. In the mean time, you can take photographs while your companion is playing dumb, intentionally so or not, claiming ignorance, a school project, or OCD right to document every single event in life.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on June 25, 2004 11:00 AM

Comments [rss]

Jen

That picture is from winter, but let me just say that the gross gash that is Columbus Circle is much much worse now - I can't imagine how much foot traffic is lost because of how gross the street is in front of it. I certainly hate walking around there.

Strange

So they hassle people taking pictures but don't have a problem with guys blowing each other in the third-floor men's room?

Weird.

Chad In Missouri

Love your site! I'm curious--is that picture a recent one? It looks almost winter like to me, but I wasn't sure.

Brian Van

My experience taking pictures at the TW Center sums to this:

1. No problems taking picture of the architecture from the outside.

2. No problems taking pictures of architecture from the inside, including out the curtain glass wall (which is quite stunning).

3. Inside the building, security did approach me to state a reasonable policy... you can take pictures of anything but the retail displays and logos of the stores. They were friendly about it. I agreed and did not miss a single shot that I wanted to get. (I'm not in the business of taking pictures of stores in a mall)

4. I took a trip down to Whole Foods, and not even two seconds after I lifted my camera from my neckstrap to capture a nice food-sculpture-thingy, a security guard swiftly arrived to put a nix on the photo op. No pictures AT ALL inside the store. I'm not particularly fond of Whole Foods, and this did not sweeten my image of their company.

For the sake of personal therapy, I must mention that all such pictures are lost, as they were stolen out of my car, both negatives AND 8x10 prints, on one unfortunate night. They took one bag that meant very much to me, as it contained my self-made prints from photo class, as well as several sets of negatives that did mean something more to me than a bunch of CDs they could have grabbed. They did leave behind the CDs, an expensive jacket, even money. It pains me to think that they likely dumped the bag in the trash once realizing it contained nothing of importance. Scumbags. (I'm done now)

Ari Paparo

More TW photos, including sausages from Whole Foods:

http://www.everythingny.com/archives/000908.html

http://www.everythingny.com/archives/000909.html

Greg

By the way, isn't it great that this huge, glamorous window looks straight out onto a nasty construction site? What a view...

Greg

I also had no problems. I took about a million photos from inside soon after it opened. I only got harassed when taking a photo in the Whole Foods market.