Traffic Camera 'Selfie' Creator Holds Cease and Desist Letter in Front of Traffic Cam

Artist Morry Kolman made a website called Traffic Cam Photobooth that lets people take “selfies” using publicly-available feeds from traffic cameras. The New York City Department of Transportation sent him a cease and desist letter demanding he cut it out. In response, he kept the site online and held the letter up to a traffic camera, according to Kolman’s posts on social media.

In the letter sent on November 6, NYC DOT demands Kolman “immediately remove and disable all portions of TCP’s website that relates to NYC traffic cameras and/or encourages members of the public to engage in dangerous and unauthorized behavior.” The department claims in the letter that Kolman’s project is “promoting the unauthorized use of NYC traffic cameras” and “encourages pedestrians to violate NYC traffic rules and engage in dangerous behavior.”  

At the time of writing the site is still up and functional, and I can still go to my nearest traffic camera and take a selfie with it. On the page before taking a photo, there’s a list of steps: first is to get in frame by refreshing the camera, and second is “don’t get run over.” There’s also a checkbox that’s required before taking the photo that affirms users agree to abide by local traffic laws: “I agree not to use Traffic Cam Photobooth for any unlawful purpose. I will comply with all local laws while using Traffic Cam Photobooth, and I will not use Traffic Cam Photobooth in a manner that creates a foreseeable risk of harm or danger to myself or others. I have read and agree to these terms.” 

There’s also a line at the bottom of the homepage: “Use in accordance with local traffic laws. Not affiliated with any government agency.”

On Wednesday, Kolman posted photos of him holding a 25-foot pole with the letter attached to the end up to a traffic camera, and announced that he showed the images of him holding the letter—and a screenshot of the camera’s view—at Art Basel in Miami last week. “I have been advised not to comment further,” he wrote.

As PCMag reported, photos of Kolman holding up the cease and desist letter to traffic cams were included in the Miami exhibition Sweet Streams (Are Made of This). “Making surveillance tech interactive is a really good way of bringing attention to it,” Kolman told PCMag. “It's one thing to understand that cameras are everywhere but… I want to show how to live under these systems and how to resist them.”

Kolman writes on the Traffic Cam Photobooth website that this project has always been a critique of surveillance systems, and a way to bring attention to something a lot of city dwellers ignore every day: the cameras watching us every step of our days. 

“While these cameras are ostensibly intended for traffic, they also serve to acclimate us to the idea that constant monitoring is an everyday part [of] life in the city,” Kolman writes on the website. “No matter the target of this surveillance, it’s clear from looking at the map that most New Yorkers get unconsentingly captured by the lens of at least one camera—if not several—every day. TCP offers visitors an engaging and lighthearted way to engage with this very serious topic by drawing attention to these easily ignored cameras. People can use their feeds, which their tax dollars help fund, to take pictures of themselves, spreading the knowledge of this sprawling surveillance apparatus through fun self-portraits designed to be sharable online.” 

About the author

Sam Cole is writing from the far reaches of the internet, about sexuality, the adult industry, online culture, and AI. She's the author of How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex.

More from Samantha Cole