A Silver Spring photographer has been arrested after a woman discovered he was recording her as she changed clothes for a photo shoot, Montgomery County Police said Friday.
Joseph Portolano, 57, of the 12600 block of English Orchard Court was charged with visual surveillance of a private area of an individual with prurient intent, which is a misdemeanor, police said.
The charges stem from an Aug. 28 incident where a 34-year-old Frederick woman visited Portolano’s home studio around 8:30 p.m., police said.
The woman was changing clothes in Portolano’s office, police said, when she discovered a hidden camera.
Police said the woman removed a disk from the camera, intending to take it with her, but dropped it in the studio.
Investigators said Portolano contacted the woman later that night by e-mail and apologized for the incident. County detectives want to hear from anyone who used Portolano’s office to change before a photo shoot and feels they may have been victimized by the photographer.
“He had had this video camera hidden in his changing area, so there certainly could have been other victims,” said Lucille Baur, a police spokeswoman. “But a person would have been only victimized if they changed their clothes.”
Anyone with information or concerns is asked to call the county police’s 4th District investigative section at 240-773-5530.
A Web site for Portolano’s Models Choice Photography describes the photographer as a father of six daughters and a “Washington bureaucrat who privately defies real work by maintaining his lifelong avocation of photography.”
Most of the images posted on Portolano’s site are of women, flowers or snapshots from recent travels abroad.
