still reading...but my jaw is dropped right now! - Justin Korn

Wow, that's unbelievable. - Chris Rivait

Blint and the SFMOMA can kiss my...time to get a group of photogs to all go in together? Let me know when the beg to apologize. - Justin Korn

It is pretty crappy. To accuse someone of using a telephoto to spy on his employees is a crappy charge and not something that one ought to get kicked out of a museum for. If the SF MOMA doesn't want their employees that sit in the atrium appearing in photos then they should not have a "photography is allowed policy" per their website in their atrium. Simon Blint is like plenty of other assholes I've run into over the years. A power trippy person who gets upset when someone challenges their word. - Thomas Hawk

Digg it up...http://digg.com/travel_... - Justin Korn

thanks Justin, appreciate the digg and support. - Thomas Hawk

TH: This is absolutely ridiculous! I don't have that much (any?) power, but I'm going to do everything I can do get this story out (not that you don't have enough followers/supporters) - Justin Korn

"Blint obviously knows nothing of photography because the 14mm ultra wide angle lens on my camera body was about the furthest thing possible from a telephoto lens." Ultra-LOL - Johnny Worthington

Sigh. Amazing that they are still being jerks about photography. - Robert Scoble

It appears that they have (just?) changed their policy on the website. "Photography is not permitted in the galleries. Flash photography is permitted only with a handheld camera in the Atrium." http://bit.ly/4sm86V - Jauder Ho

Jauder: But TH was in the Atrium, and he wasn't using a tripod, so his camera was handheld. Do you interpret the policy as 'only flash cameras are okay. Cameras without flashes are not'? - Kevin Fox

So 'handheld' must only be point and shoot... - Johnny Worthington

Kevin: Upon initial reading of the policy, for some reason I fixated/associated it to mean only P&S. My bad. I do not like what happened to TH and would definitely like to see a reponse from MOMA addressing this. - Jauder Ho from twhirl

sounds like the Curator of the SF MOMA needs a slew of emails , in protest . Perhaps a large photography meetup at the SFMOMA . Press Office commassistant@sfmoma.org - johnpiercy

A photowalk with video camera would be lots of fun! Then we could have a segment about "what to do if you are accosted by an asshole." :-) - Robert Scoble

I'm in for a photowalk over there. I just sent an email to the curator as well. - Justin Korn

http://www.google.com/search... I hope this is just a wake up call for him and that he doesn't lose his job over his poor behavior. - EricaJoy

Sounds like a good human interest 'new story' for a local TV station or Newspaper. Works every time - Charlie Anzman

@Erica incompetence at a high-level position like that where interfacing with the public is priority #1 is exactly the sort of reason he should be severely reprimanded or terminated. That's the last thing a museum needs is bad press. - Pete Delucchi

Thomas - want to come visit DC's Union Station with me? - Andrew Feinberg

Nice shot from the Atrium BTW - Johnny Worthington

Reprimanded yes. Fired? Only if he has an established pattern of this sort of behavior. - EricaJoy

I dugg the post, and sent an e-mail to relay my astonishment. Looking at the other staff members' e-mail addresses on the PR contact page, it was pretty easy to guess at Simon's. - Tom Harrison

like, dugg, shared and whatever else you need to help :) - Tim Hoeck

I'm sorry you got kicked out, Thomas! What I really don't understand about his accusation of your spying (and it seems to be a common excuse to try to stop photography these days) is that newer P&S cameras are capable of crazy zoom. If someone were spying, do they not think they would want to be the LEAST conspicuous? It makes no sense. - carlotta fancypants

I can't believe this happened. I hope everyone talks up this issue and something changes. I noticed that people react differently when you use a DSLR instead of a small point-n-shoot. - Tom Newman

Ppl freak out when I pull out my DSLR..... - John Staton

But more and more people have DSLRs these days -- I think they will just have to get used to it - Brian Sullivan

facebook profile -Simon Blint http://www.facebook.com/home... - johnpiercy

Wow, what a muppet. - Andrew Garrett

I just delicious tagged and anonymous tipped your story for SFist... we'll see if they pick it up... - Richard pancakhaus Walker

Tomorrow night I'm going to see two friends who work in the SF MOMA dungeon. I'll ask them about this miscreant. - Richard pancakhaus Walker

I left an hour before this happened but not before I had to body check the over zealous security girl who literally got within 6 inches of my personal space because I refused to acknowledge her 2nd request to turn my off camera. - Mrsth

Simon Blintz is a douche nozzle. He needs a good kick in the nuts. - noeltykay

Something tells me he's going to have come to his senses by Monday. - Pete Delucchi

If you haven't dugg it yet (only 200 or so have!) do it...http://digg.com/travel_... - Justin Korn

Holy sh**. I took tons of photos at the Louvre and no one cared. - sergiooo from NoiseRiver

Ridiculous. This type of stuff really annoys me and makes me wonder about the future of public photography in general. I'm amazed at how quickly our photographic freedoms are being torn away by unbased bias and fear. GRRRRRRR. - Sam Dodge

Interestingly, Simon seems to shoot with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi. http://flickr.com/search... His behavior seems more douchey to me now. - EricaJoy

This man needs to loose his job over this incident. Not even a public apology should save him from getting canned. I've had a similar incident regarding my camera at a NY Islanders game in the Nassau Coliseum and have been following Thomas Hawk's series of posts about the museum with interest. David Pogue wrote about this as well after a motocross event incident a few months back. - Tony Vota

Wow! 12 pages of ff entries on "Simon Blint" in just 19 hours. http://friendfeed.com/search... - Jesper Kjær Hansen

What a nippy arse. Hope he gets read the riot act. - Chris Nixon

There are some comments over on SFist from people with first-hand opinions: http://sfist.com/2008... - Richard pancakhaus Walker

Oh, and one more thing to all of you that are trying to make this an issue of Hawk's or Blint's character, I think the real issue stems from trumped up "security" meant to keep us "safe." All sorts of power-tripping security guards and police have become accustomed to people immediately accepting restricted rights with the magic words "post 9/11." The reason it is such a hot-button issue is that most people have not pushed back against the Patriot act and all it (theoretically) allows law enforcement to restrict. But sure, go right ahead and make this a "Diva" vs. "Employee" issue. And may thee forever lack moisturizer on thine inglorious vacations. - Richard pancakhaus Walker

Sorry this happened to you Thomas, it's strange to see how close minded and arrogant are some of the people in art institution. What happened to you and to me last week is a sign of the times: photography is increasingly seen as a danger as it cannot be controlled. http://digg.com/arts_cu... - Davide Bedin