On Sep 24, 2006, at 2:19 PM, Vic Mortelmans wrote: > ... Today I was at a public street community fair (kind of garage > sail) > taking some pictures. Again: not framing individual people, but just > catching the environment. Since we live in a multi-cultural city, I > happened to frame a sale stand where a family of muslim people was > looking around. One of the women directly signaled me that she opposed > to have a picture taken. ...
I operate on the basis of courtesy to the subjects. - If I'm shooting on the street and people are not reacting to me as I work, nothing to worry about. I just keep on working. - If someone reacts, then a relationship between me and that person has been developed. Often times these become excellent photo opportunities. I might shoot some more, talk to the person, shoot some more afterwards, whatever. - If someone reacts negatively, I will smile and acquiesce to their desires for privacy. This does not mean that I will stop working, it means I operate under the tacit agreement that I will not photograph that person specifically. - If they're taking umbrage that I'm shooting in the situation at all, and it is a public event, I politely tell them to go to hell and point out that shooting in a public space is legal and legitimate work for me. And continue working, while respecting the tacit agreement that I will not photograph that person specifically. --- I recall on one of the visits I made to SF with someone from the PDML there was a woman with a rather flamboyant outfit sitting at the cafe as we passed, talking with her daughter. I made a quiet exposure of the scene and was moving on. Whomever I was with made a point of catching her attention to ask if she would mind having a picture taken. She refused. Which leaves the interesting moral dilemna ... I have a perfectly good photograph of this woman and the scene which she doesn't know was taken, and when approached she specifically did not want her photo taken. Now, what should I do with the perfectly good picture I have of her? Godfrey -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
