Street photographer or voyeur?

[Jamie Pillers]

How do you react when someone on the street catches you taking their picture? Do you lower the camera and move on, or take it anyway?

And how do you react when you see the final image? Excited? Proud? Or do you sometimes feel like me... wondering why I'm intruding on people's lives and making a spectacle of them here on the web?

Apropos these thoughts, check out the "W/NW The Look" thread I just started.

 

[Spleenrippa]

I am of the view that there is no intrusion if everyone is in a public space.

 

[Frank Petronio]

Yeah I wish I didn't look away when I get caught checking someone out or making a street picture. Yet I will still do it, most of the time, out of some deeply seated habit. If I dare to look, I should have the guts to really look.

 

[Arjay]

It depends. If someone notices me preparing to take the picture, I might stop, but if they notice me while I'm already taking the picture, I won't stop.

It doesn't make much of a difference: If the subject minds, and he/she will ask me to discard the picture, I will oblige. If he/she doesn't object, then I'll walk away. No reason to feel guilty - all I'm interested in is taking pictures without getting harrassed.

PS: If you admit letting the thought of being a voyeur come into your mind, you (a) will be a voyeur, and (b) you'll lose your spontaneous ability to record the scene at hand without influencing it.

 

[jky]

How do you react when someone on the street catches you taking their picture? Do you lower the camera and move on, or take it anyway?

And how do you react when you see the final image? Excited? Proud? Or do you sometimes feel like me... wondering why I'm intruding on people's lives and making a spectacle of them here on the web?

Apropos these thoughts, check out the "W/NW The Look" thread I just started.

A smile & a nod goes a long way. Occasionally, if I'm getting a bad vibe, then I'll put the camera down, but for the most part I'll take the photo.

If the final image works, then yes of course there's a sense of accomplishment/achievement... but this is a rarity!
And no, i've never felt like I'm intruding....

 

[Jamie Pillers]

Legally correct. 🙂

 

[tbarker13]

This is probably one of the reasons I don't care all that much for street photography. I do feel like it's an intrusion.
To be clear, I believe you have the right to take photos in public. Or, to put it another way: I believe you have the right to intrude in people's lives when they are out on a public street.

Just makes you look a little sneaky when you get noticed - and respond by quickly pulling the camera down.

 

[ampguy]

Hi Arjay

Hi Arjay

A couple of posts above, you mentioned that you would oblige if asked to delete a photo.

Anyways, what is your procedure for deleting film photos of people who object to your taking their photo, and request that you delete it??

Funny thing you should say this. I recently took a picture using my (film) Hexar AF, and someone objected, wanting to see the picture. I showed them the back of my camera without any moniotor. That immediately calmed the situation, as the person was so astonished about my camera and my inability to react that that was the end of the confrontation. He simply had never seen a film-based camera before, and did not take me for a serious photographer.

 

[Chris101]

I specialize in the moment of getting busted. The pictures I like best are the ones where the subject has just noticed and has an expression of instant reaction on their face. I like the other kind too - the true candid where the subject is oblivious, but it's not as exciting - and the pictures aren't as good. The eye contact with the subject does add to the picture.

 

[ampguy]

If someone doesn't want you to photograph them, why take it anyways? Is that art?

How do you react when someone on the street catches you taking their picture? Do you lower the camera and move on, or take it anyway?

And how do you react when you see the final image? Excited? Proud? Or do you sometimes feel like me... wondering why I'm intruding on people's lives and making a spectacle of them here on the web?

Apropos these thoughts, check out the "W/NW The Look" thread I just started.

 

[Jamie Pillers]

I like the thought you hint at in the second paragraph. For me it goes something like: "My objective in making street photographs is to record what our street looked like in 2011, an honest, straightforward, and necessary vocation."

 

[Jamie Pillers]

Actually they have them on a lot of digital cameras. Its a function called something like "Hide" and prevents that image from being seen in playback. 🙂

 

[Jamie Pillers]

Tim, you raise the other side of my 'feelings' about this whole matter. I justify what I'm doing by remindiing myself that we would have never known what, say, 1930's New York street life was like without the street photographers of that time.

 

[Arjay]

A couple of posts above, you mentioned that you would oblige if asked to delete a photo.
Anyways, what is your procedure for deleting film photos of people who object to your taking their photo, and request that you delete it??

I'm waiting for your suggestion. I have no idea - I just mentioned it because it was an amusing situation.

 

[jky]

Just makes you look a little sneaky when you get noticed - and respond by quickly pulling the camera down.

Yep - behaving this way causes more attention to yourself than necessary... so why be sneaky? Why not go out with purpose like you belong out there taking pictures? It's easier to disappear when people aren't suspicious...

 

[Jamie Pillers]

I totally agree with this approach. Having this positive 'we're all in this together' attitude generally makes the activity acceptable to all. And I'm going to try remembering your idea of putting the camera down when I'm feeling 'cranky'. 🙂

 

[Jamie Pillers]

I love it! "I specialize in the moment of getting busted." Can I use this as my motto? I think I might order a lapel pin with this on it. 🙂

 

[ampguy]

Hi Arjay

Hi Arjay

My suggestion is if you've taken a candid photo, even legally and in public, and the person, or their parent/guardian kindly requests that you erase or delete the photo that you too, is to apologize and to give them the roll of film in your camera.

I'm waiting for your suggestion. I have no idea - I just mentioned it because it was an amusing situation.

 

[Mcary]

How do you react when someone on the street catches you taking their picture? Do you lower the camera and move on, or take it anyway?

I generally take the picture and then smile and wish them a wonderful day and then continue with what I'm doing or depending on the subject(s) and their reaction I might try to get a few street/candid portraits.

Example the original I guess you'd say street shot/frame was an OK shot, but I much prefer this later frame/candid portrait.

 

[Jamie Pillers]

Without too much debate of the details, I think there's probably a very fine line between harassment (unacceptable in my book) and capturing a moment of awareness, discovery, illumination.