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 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Len Paris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Phillip Atlee's protagonist, Joe Gall, used to be a photographer as well > as a secret agent type. I suspect that in real life spies are probably > pretty accomplished photographers but I'm only guessing. > > Len > * There's no place like 127.0.0.1 >
