Comments on: What’s he doing?

By: lain

lain — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:13:07 +0000

she said no but she really meant yes and that she was asking for it because she was walking down a street with two webs cams?! (surely not)

By: Mark McNulty

Mark McNulty — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:19:45 +0000

The photo seems to be missing?

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:51:18 +0000

I think your “niggly feeling” instinct was right on the money in this instance. While the law is simple and clear enough, the ethics and a photographers responsibility to the subject are much less clear cut. It’s quite easy to ask “is it OK?” and get tacit approval from people using body language alone, and it doesn’t interrupt your flow (unless you’re taking pure candids). If you get a ‘no’ and you’ve taken the picture, you have to decide whether to publish. In my case I apply a sort of ‘public interest’ test to it:

- is a wider interest served (perhaps for a news/documentary story on drug abuse/urban violence) or just my own ego?

- does the image preserve the subjects diginity, or might publication cause hurt or embarrassment (are they face down in the gutter or is their face screwed up like a pig)?

- is the activity shown legal (publishing images of violence or police brutality, for example, might very well be justified, all other considerations aside)?

I think photography is at it’s best when it empathises with its subjects and serves a higher interest – very little of the top flight work created over the years would fail the above tests; paparazzi work often would. Much as I find some peoples reaction a bit precious on occasion, I think most of us instinctively see a difference between being caught on CCTV or a webcam and being photographed by another human being. As photographers we have to make a choice we can live with.

By: David Anderson

David Anderson — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:08:01 +0000

Pity I missed the photo, I like to see the kinds of reactions people get when they’re ‘caught in the act’ so to speak, though I totally appreciate why you decided to remove it. I sometimes get a few hands going over faces when people walk into shot and realise what they’ve done, and I’ve had one person ask not to be photographed when they realised what I was about to do, and that was cool as I wouldn’t want to go against someone’s wishes like that.

By: Pete

Pete — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 10:12:56 +0000

I didn’t ask their permission. Its not always possible to and the law in the UK allows me to take anyones photo. However, its a good idea to get consent and generally you’ll know if someone doesn’t want their photo taken. I felt that these girls reacted in a more comic way than anything. They chose the wrong road to walk down as it has 2 web cams on it, and always has tourists taking photos.

I’m debating taking the photo down. I’ll leave this open for discussion, but I did have a niggly feeling last night about whether I should post it. As you’ve picked up on it its now stronger.

By: EgoPimp

EgoPimp — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 09:40:17 +0000

A perfect street portrait, you have captured emotion. Fine, as a result of you and the camera, but I still like it. Its good to get a reaction.

No question about it, I would publish without thinking twice.

Well done.

Gary.

By: LightningPaul

LightningPaul — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 09:04:59 +0000

A nice but bit noisy image (still ok, especially in B/W). The reaction of the girls makes the image even better.

I can understand the reaction of the girls. Perhaps they shouldn’t be there at this place and they want nobody to find out. Did you ask their permission to publish this image? I always ask permission to the person(s) (or their parents in case of children), unless they are part of public happening, for instance carnaval or a haloween parade.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 05:06:54 +0000

Peoples response is bizarre sometimes. But given that their response would seem to be a tacit “no”, do you think it’s fair game to publish it, particularly as it’s not (for me at least) a great shot by your usual standards? It’s intended to be a question rather than a criticism.

By: Abhijit Dharmadhikari

Abhijit Dharmadhikari — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 02:14:54 +0000

You said it! It’s a crazy world! I get similar experiences sometimes. Shooting street/unknown people; especially females is challenging and also very risky!

Superb black and white tones in the picture! Just like an old time silver halide effect!