It strikes me that perhaps you shouldn't be divulging all of this to this list. Do we all now have to look forward to clicky phone lines and monitored electronic communications?
I swear to God, if men in black suits and sunglasses start knocking at my door, or if I find that I'm constantly being driven off the road by large black limousines, I'll know who to blame!
<vbg>
Seriously, great yarn. Could be the seeds of a screenplay or book: "By day he's an unassumiong museum photographer, by night, photospy!"
"I take my stop bath shaken, not stirred..."
"Farr.............Anthony Farr."
I should really stop now...
-frank
"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
From: "Anthony Farr" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: OT: Photographer-Spies (was: OT: Best photography novel?) Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 13:18:50 +1100
Back in the late 80s, Australia's intelligence service, ASIO, advertised
(yes! advertised) in the daily papers for photographers. Needing work at
the time I applied, and it was one of the strangest interviews I ever sat,
in a mirror walled office, no less. The very first question was, "How do
you handle heat?" I believe they were fishing for an inappropriate response
to an alternative definition of "heat".
It turned out that they wanted "Operative/Photographers" and it was made clear to me that the work would not always be within the law, and that break-ins would be involved, so technical competence under difficult conditions was paramount (there'd be no chance of a reshoot).
A fortnight later I was politely informed that I had been unsuccessful in my
application, but there followed several months of clicky phone lines and
strange meetings with unusual people. After a few months, when I was
happily esconsed in a nice museum photographer's job, I got a call ~at work~
offering me a job (they'd never been told about my new job!). I regretfully
declined because I was happy with my museum job, so they just said, "well,
anytime you want a job with us, just call the Office of the Attorny General"
(that was how they answered the phone, never "ASIO speaking, how can we help
you.").
It occured to me that my failure to get the job at the initial interview, and the ensuing period (of observation?) was in fact the normal procedure, and I wasn't unsuccessful after all.
Life could have been verrrry different for me.
regards, Anthony Farr
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