Photographer Puts Focus on Privacy Debate
Student's provocative pictures of dorm life lead to his eviction and fuel discussion over a photojournalist's rights and responsibilities.

 By James Rainey
 Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

 January 23, 2005

 SAN FRANCISCO — Omar Vega did not come to San Francisco State University to be just another freshman. The award-winning photographer intended to make his mark. And, in a fashion, he did.

 Vega's pictures of partying, binge drinking, oral sex and, in particular, an alleged car burglary, thrust him into the center of a debate among photojournalists over their rights and responsibilities.

 Vega, 18, and his supporters say he fulfilled a righteous mission through pictures published in the student newspaper or those he posted on the Internet: enhancing public knowledge about life in the university's freshman dormitories.

 His critics, including some students and campus housing authorities, counter that the photographer was more voyeur than journalist and violated the privacy of fellow students. They accuse the Stockton teen of condoning and even abetting the alleged car burglary and other provocative activities.

 Consequently, the university evicted Vega from his dorm room on the fifth floor of Mary Park Hall. He faces the possibility of additional discipline when school resumes this week. And he has become the subject of a furious online debate among fellow photojournalists on whether he crossed ethical lines.

 A 1st Amendment law firm is prepared to fight to overturn Vega's eviction and to contest the university's housing department rules, which require advance permission and 24-hour notice before the press can take pictures in the dorms.

 Emilia Mayorga of the firm of Kerr & Wagstaffe said the average student has more freedom to take pictures in San Francisco State's dorms than a student journalist such as Vega, who also lived in the dorm.

 "That's precisely the type of media discrimination that the 1st Amendment was established to prevent," Mayorga said.

 Those who knew him growing up in Stockton are not surprised to find Vega, the son of an Army veteran, in the thick of the action again. While a student at Bear Valley High School, he ventured to Southern California to take pictures of the 2003 wildfires.

 At San Francisco State, Vega quickly won a freelance assignment from the student newspaper, Golden Gate XPress, to compile a photo essay on freshman dorm life.

 Vega saw his camera as a "great icebreaker" in meeting other students. Professional photographers envied the unrestricted access he had. And Vega employed a no-holds-barred approach to documenting the hothouse existence of teenagers living away from home for the first time.

 It wasn't long before student housing authorities accused him of failing to obtain the required permission to take pictures within the dorm. DJ Morales, the university's director of residential life, also complained that Vega failed to heed instructions to back off as firefighters tried to free a student trapped in a dorm elevator; took pictures in an "intrusive and insensitive" way during a campus memorial service for a student killed in a fall and "went around soliciting sex for his camera," to fulfill an assignment about changing mores regarding oral sex.

 Vega argued that in each of the cases he had obeyed directions and went out of his way to make sure students knew their pictures could be published.

 "I would describe Omar as someone who has gotten the photojournalism gene," said Ken Kobre, a San Francisco State photojournalism professor and author of a standard text on the subject.

 "Mom and dad are paying for the dorm. We [taxpayers] are all paying for the dorm. And we really do deserve to see what is going on inside our public institutions … [without] being thwarted by housing officials who are embarrassed," Kobre said.

 Some students admired his dedication. Others got a kick out of the outrageous subjects he tried to shoot. At least a few felt overwhelmed by Vega's "big personality," as one said, or disgusted when he persisted in seeking subjects for the oral sex story.

 The brash photographer's feud with campus housing officials finally boiled over after an incident in late October. As Vega, who took several pictures of the incident, described it:

 When a student found a set of car keys outside the dormitory on a Sunday night, about half a dozen friends decided to try to find the car that went with the keys. Vega said he grabbed his camera and tagged along. At least two students rummaged around inside the car and one of the students later told him that CDs and $8 had been stolen. The students threw the keys in the bushes and returned to the dorm.

 After intense debate, the student newspaper decided against immediate publication of the pictures: Even if the car burglary had been verified, it didn't seem to represent a newsworthy campus trend.

 But Vega, without consulting his peers or faculty members, posted five pictures of the incident on a photographer's website for professional photographers.

 The response to the black-and-white images was fast and, at least initially, furious.

 "If you have a choice between taking a photo and stopping someone from being victimized, stop the crime, period," wrote one photographer, typical of dozens who "flamed" Vega via a website message board. "Your calling as a journalist is not more important. You are not more important."

 Another website member woke Vega with an early morning phone call, angrily suggesting the teenager had sullied the reputation of all his peers.

 But other professional "shooters" jumped to his defense, saying if he had called police he would have violated a professional precept — that journalists cannot record events if they interrupt them. "He did not affect the situation he was put into. He recorded it for history," wrote one photographer. "When you break it down, that is what a good journalist does."

 Another supporter argued that such photos, in theory, could heighten awareness about car thefts and lead to an increase in security. Experts say the heated conflict among professional photographers is not surprising.

 "You have a set of colliding values here," said Kelly McBride, head of the ethics faculty of the Poynter Institute, a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based school for professional journalists. "The primary value in journalism is to tell the truth. But to act independently is another very important value in journalism. That's why reporters and photographers don't want to be seen as tools of the government."

 McBride said a photographer in Vega's situation could consider a variety of options, from confronting the students about the theft, to reporting it to the car owner, to informing housing officials or the police.

 Journalists joining the Vega debate generally agreed that some circumstances — witnessing an assault or kidnapping in progress, for instance — require them to drop their purely journalistic mission and intervene.

 Vega's Internet posting of the car break-in created such a storm that campus police received phone calls from around the country and as far away as South Korea.

 In a formal ruling just before Christmas, Morales, of the housing office, evicted Vega, finding he had "demonstrated disregard for a fellow resident's personal property" by "conspiring, aiding or abetting" in the car theft.

 At least one other participant was kicked out of the dorm. Campus police will file a report after school resumes and the district attorney's office will have to decide whether any of the students will be criminally charged.

 Vega said he will probably find off-campus housing or continue living with relatives in Oakland, but will continue his appeal in hopes of overturning the finding that he abetted the alleged burglary.

 But he did did not spend his winter break stewing over his fate. He began an internship at the Oakland Tribune, then was drawn by another story. He flew to Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he has been capturing scenes of the devastation from the tsunami.