"See, my religion is street photography. I'm required by it to take pictures of people--so I guess our creeds are in conflict."
I'm not usually that cheeky, but that's what I'd feel like answering :) I try not to take pictures of people who don't want their pictures taken--whatever the reason might be. They most probably be uninteresting pictures anyway, with people interacting with the photographer instead of with each other. But I do like to assert my right to take photos in public places. Yesterday, in the San Francisco love parade of all places, a woman came to me, very curtly, saying "you should ask first." My answer was "if I ask, I won't get the picture I'm looking for--I don't want poses. " "What if someone doesn't want their picture taken?" "Well, I'm a nice guy and I won't take their picture if they ask me not to, but as long as they are in the street, I'm free to take whatever pictures I want" "Well, I'm not in the mood today." "That's too bad. Have a nice day." Funny thing is, she wasn't even in my picture--she was next to a couple I was photographing, who couldn't have been more oblivious to my presence all that time. My point is, I will honor people's desires wrt picture taking, but I really don't consider religion to be a special kind of reason. Of course local laws will be different everywhere. I don't know how it is in Belgium, but chances are street photography is 1) more difficult from the legal point of view and 2) easier from the attitude of people. I say this because I feel like in Europe I can get away with things that would be difficult to do in the USA, like taking pictures of kids. j On 9/24/06, Vic Mortelmans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > 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 > -- Juan Buhler - http://www.jbuhler.com photoblog: http://photoblog.jbuhler.com a book: http://www.jbuhler.com/book.html -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
