I´m not muslim (or much of anything religious at all) but my brother has family in the largest muslim state in the world, Indonesia. I´ve been there and taken picturesin the streets, and it was no problem. Thus I think any objections may be seen as more cultural than religious dependent, depending on how they practice their religion.
I did try to take pictures in the late 80´s just north of Caucasus and there you could find out what religion they had in the area by trying to take a picture. If they through things at you, they were muslims, of the posed, they were some kind of christians. I think you just have to listen to the locals. Ask them. If they accept it you can take pictures. DagT PS: Did you known that the old testament has the same rule against images of people? Den 24. sep. 2006 kl. 23.19 skrev Vic Mortelmans: > Hi, > > This forum has discussed legal objections to street photography many > times. When I do street photograpy, it's not that often that I really > take a frame on individual people, so I don't really bother about > that. > If people are in the picture, they're mostly unaware and part of a > crowd > or passing by at some distance. Moreover, I'm an amateur and don't > publish photographs, so I don't see any problem in that area. > > 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 know that this is forbidden by the islam > religon. > > I have a dual feeling about this. > > On the one hand, I can fully understand people to oppose to being > photographed, be it for religious reasons, privicy reason or > economical > reaons (if the pictures are commercialized), or whatever. That's the > main reason why I'm not in to street photography with direct > contact to > the subject; I know the risk that the reaction is negative and having > arguments or even a row would make me loose the pleasure of taking > pictures. > > On the other hand, I feel uncomfertable that a couple of muslim people > mingling in a crowd can prohibit me to take pictures. What if I would > have been photographing my 2 year old son running around through the > street and they happened to be in the background... Strictly spoken, > that would have objected them as well, I guess. They're just part of a > crowd. > > And I also have a third thought about this (but I hope I don't start a > polemic discussion on this). I'm myself a practicing roman > catholic, so > I (think I) know what religion is about. Nevertheless, I can't imagine > to interact with other people in my city community in this > defensive (*) > manner, based on my religious practice. But maybe I'm a bad > catholic... > > Anyway, this is my (little) story... I'd like to hear some reaction to > that! Maybe this forum numbers some muslim photographers? That > would be > really interesting! > > Groeten, > > Vic > > (*) note: I put the woman's reaction as being defensive, implying > that I > was the one to be offensive, starting to take the picture. That's just > fair for the sake of the discussion. > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net DagT http://dag.foto.no Beware of internet links. You never know what is on the other side. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
