Not later than a few hours ago I was taking photos of young people fishing in front of the seaside next to a small harbour because the numerous fishing rods with the harbour lighthouse in the background made it for a quite graphic scene. Then I suddenly got acid comments and aggressive questions from one of them about "the permission" and how I should behave in my photography (basically I was advised to shoot landscapes or monuments not people).
Then the discussion quickly went off-side and about law, politeness, and the like. As ever.
This is beginning quite common nowadays I'm afraid. Boring to the max. Something I didn't encounter back in the 1980's when I began with street/candid photography.
Next time I think I will answer this kind of people in any foreign language and have them think I don't understand what they mean.
Most boring thing is that those people keeping hassling photographers about this boring "permission and respect" issue are often themselves more than questionable about how they behave in society.
Sometimes I wonder how the present children will see our societies when they are adults if we couldn't leave tracks of the actual world and its actual inhabitants behind, as our fathers did.
Cars, monuments, empty landscapes, fashion models, movie stars, this is what may be only pictured off our era if that "permission" issue takes it over or gets discouraging.
Another option may be to wear a bumped out hat, a beard, worn out clothes, to look like a strange tourist, always smile, and use an old Vivitar flash at the end of a PC cord, like Bruce Gilden.
Seems to work for him but I'm not too sure if the strobe wouldn't awake sleeping people though...
😀
