SCOUTING
FIELD NOTES

The Creepiest Security Guard You’ll Ever Meet

07/08/2026

A while back, I was in the middle of taking scout pictures of an office building lobby when I suddenly noticed something: a security guard staring at me from his booth in the back, arms crossed, clearly not happy with what I was up to.

It happens all the time: management gives me the OK to scout but forgets to notify their lobby staff, and it always turns into a big argument til things get cleared up. Even though the guard was being passive aggressive, I know from experience it’s best to deal with it head on…

So I marched over and, without waiting for him to speak, gave the guard a full, clear explanation of exactly what I was doing and who gave me permission to do so… And he just continued to stare silently, arms crossed, skeptical. For a moment, I felt my temper rise…

Then I looked a bit closer at his face… His unblinking eyes… How still he was…

And then I saw him name tag, and it all became clear…

“Art.”

Note: this was back in 2012, and I’m not sure if ol’ Art is still on duty. But he was popular enough to merit his own NY Times write-up back in 1994!

Originally published 4/30/2012.

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cameron

04/30/2012

The artist is Duane Hanson.

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/duane_hanson.htm

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Art

04/30/2012

“So I went up to the window, big smile on my face, and started explaining how I was a movie location scout looking for a shooting location and would the owners perhaps be interested…”

That’s embarrassing.

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Rebecca

04/30/2012

Yup, what Cameron said. I remember seeing a show of his stuff at the Whitney when I was a kid – including the security guard!

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Jongleur

04/30/2012

Are you guy sure that is Hanson? I am almost positive that this one is by Marc Sijan, not Duane Hanson. This looks very similar to one that I saw by Sijan that was modeled after his father.

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Aaron

04/30/2012

http://www.perrotin.com/artiste-Duane_Hanson-57.html#

Cameron beat me to it, but there are a few more guards in this selection. Where I grew up (Milwaukee), the museum had “Janitor” in the permanent collection, and it was always a highlight of our school tours.

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Lifesart

04/30/2012

Lots of years ago, I was tripped up by one of these in an office building in Garden City. It was a similar setup, with the guard behind glass, and we had ‘yoo hoo’ed several times before we realized he wasn’t guarding anything. Too funny! I’m glad someone as experienced as you was also fooled – makes me feel better!

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K

04/30/2012

My office is in this building I will go double check the credit

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J

04/30/2012

is that at the omni in garden city? there’s a 50’s diner in the basement…i’ve gone to many parties there!

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K

04/30/2012

Yes it’s the Omni Building. Unfortunately, there is no credit marker identifying the work. But I guess that would have killed the illusion. The family behind the development company of the building are supporters of the arts, so I would be confident The provenance of the work is first rate. As Nick has documented for us in the past, Real Estate people usually have an eye for art, as it’s a “real” or “hard” asset.

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Accidental Londoner

04/30/2012

That is the creepiest thing ever! I was traumatised as a child by some similarly creepy (what I thought) models in a jail museum…just as I was peering at their realistic features they came to life and scared the bejeezus out of me! They were people pretending to be dummies pretending to be people; weird!

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Ada (new york)

04/30/2012

Funny!!!! They probably have cameras to capture people’s reaction .. I would love to see the vids. Hmmm, I wonder if his eyes are vid cam .. haha. What an APPROPRIATE NAME too! Thanks for scouting and sharing!

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Old Skool

04/30/2012

Dude, totally priceless.

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Marcia

05/01/2012

When I was a kid we went to Quebec where there was a statue of Jesus Christ in a glass tomb it was so lifelike that I refused to go into any more churches.

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Sara

05/01/2012

Scout, you’ve done it again 🙂 I’m always amazed!

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Dani

05/01/2012

I know where this is! I had my Bat Mitzvah in the 50’s diner and the cocktail hour was in the art gallery/lobby.

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Jongleur

05/01/2012

I still believe this to be Marc Sijan’s work as opposed to Duane Hanson. I just found this photo on Sijan’s homepage. It looks A LOT like the piece in the Omni Building. It looks to me like the same “person” just in a different uniform

http://marcsijan.com/pers/Sculptures/image/security%20guard%20standing.jpg

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Dan

05/02/2012

I went for a meeting in this building awhile ago, I knew they guy was fake the minute I saw him.

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cameron

05/05/2012

I think you’re right Dan. I stand corrected.

Aaron – I grew up seeing the janitor too. It took years for my sister and I to become comfortable enough to get anywhere near him. I work in a museum in Minneapolis now and the Janitor came to visit me recently!

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Kim

05/11/2012

There was an amazing Trompe L’oeuil exhibit at the National Gallery in DC a while ago. Mixed in among the many tourists were fake security guards and fake onlookers. I guarantee that 95% of the people never realized it.

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Neil

05/13/2012

This reminds me of the speed trap in Hillsboro, NM. Sierra County is about the size of Connecticut and, when I lived there for about 5 years, had one traffic light (they have since installed a couple more, but Hillsboro doesn’t have one yet). Hillsboro, though a former County seat, had lost most of its population many years ago when its gold mine became mined out, and was a sleepy semi-ghost town. The one highway through town had a speed limit of about 30 in midtown, but people generally ignored it. The sheriff’s department couldn’t afford a lot of manpower to enforce the limit, but they parked a patrol car at the side of the highway with a manican in a deputy’s uniform inside. Visitors to the area were constantly knocking on the window of the car to ask directions.

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