Based on your narrative, there's no reason to suppose that she objected on religious grounds. I had a Muslim girlfriend a few years ago and have loads of pictures of her and her children - these things are a matter of interpretation and of different traditions within Islam. Equally, plenty of (apparently / obviously) non-Muslim people object to having their picture taken, even in public.
It's up to you to decide whether or not you want to take any notice of their wishes. I suspect it will depend on the circumstances. Sometimes when people ask me not to take their picture I acquiesce; other times I ignore them. There is no religious aspect to this. -- Cheers, Bob > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of Vic Mortelmans > Sent: 24 September 2006 22:19 > To: pentax epostlijst > Subject: Street photography - religious objections > > 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 > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > > > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
