What a day! I have been up, down, high, low and round in circles, all day long. Different voices and opinions firing from all directions, and I have really not been able to make sense of much of it.
Heres the deal. I choose a photo every week to send to the "Scotland - In Pictures" feature. Just snaps that people take in the hope that the BBC might stick it in, and you can show off to all your mates - look, a BBC photo! My mums boyfriend got a mushroom published, and Michael got a Highland Cow published. So, I send Law Hospital in, hoping, but doubtful, that it will make the cut.
Ring Ring, it's the BBC on the phone. They tell me they want to do a photo gallery of the hospital using my pics, and it will feature info on urbex, a little about me and the camera, etc etc. I was naturally chuffed, absolutely ecstatic in fact. I am yet to put my foot in it. Throughout the course of the convo, he asks various questions. What type of camera do you use, how long you been into this, have I plans for any other urbex stuff, and finally, the question which resulted in my foot being jammed halfway down my throat, how many photos do I have.
I excitably tell him, 'I have loads of photos. Some of them are totally unreal too, peoples X-Rays and stuff'. At that point his tone changed, and he put me on hold. About a minute later, he explains to me that he wants to "extend" the feature, but needs to get permission from his editor. I say cool, and we end the call.
Ring Ring, it's the BBC on the phone, again. This time, a girl, a journalist, and she wants to interview me on the telephone. I agree, and after a few photography related questions, I get the security issues thrown at me.
Do you think security was sufficient?
Nope.
Did you ever see security inside the building?
Nope.
Do you think it would be easy for kids to access?
I guess so.
How surprised were you to find X rays and other personal files.
Surprised I guess? I would have thought it would have all been shipped to the new hospital, or destroyed.
Anyhoo! After several other phonecalls from the original chap who called (who apparently still wants to run the photo feature), and from some of his colleagues, I agreed to be interviewed on site...and whilst I think I have probably ruined this place for photographers in the short term, I hope maybe something good comes out of this. I mean is it right that we can walk into a derelict building and see peoples names, addresses, date of birth and medical notes? Probably not, and whilst I wasn't hugely interested in that side of Urbex, thinking about it, maybe its good to have raised a spotlight on this.
I really hope for my own sake, the original caller does see some merit in the photos I took. It would suck to have been duped into what is simply a page filler due to slow news. The fact that my photos had nothing personal in them leads me to believe he was originally genuine, and it was my admission to the x rays etc which led to their story.
I am both excited that a wider audience MAY get to see my photos for what they are, and very nervous about any comeback from all this. I dunno if i have done the right thing or not, time will tell.
Today, I feel completely conflicted!
Gary.
PS - sorry, this is rushed, very tired and need sleep!