What are the ethical obligations of a street photographer? What shouldn’t we do while working and why? That’s what I want to think about today.
First off I think street photography is a societal plus. The more artists we have working and expressing what it’s like to be alive today the better chance we have of creating an empathetic society; A society that can step outside of their own heads and think about what it’s like to be another person. To make the viewer sit down and really try to think about what it’s like being on the other side of the photograph is what all great street photographers can do.
Potential problems with street photography
When I was just starting out making street photographs I wanted to make an image of a man in a stylish shirt. He ended up grabbing me by the arm and telling me to delete it. I explained to him why I took the photo, I liked his shirt and his gait, his way of carrying himself. That mixed with the interesting background made me want to make a photo of him. He listened to me and understood. Then he calmed down once I deleted the photo and simply told me that I should always ask first.
There are lots of people that believe that photos are something you should always ask for. You can accept this belief if you want to, but I believe candid street photography is important and sometimes better than posed images. It’s important because humans need artists to hold a mirror up to society. There are certain situations where a candid photograph comes together and if an artist believes that the world in front of them should be remembered then that photograph should be made.* But ethics is a bit trickier and more complex than a simple right or wrong. Some people don’t like photographs of themselves, especially in a candid manner. I believe that should be respected.
*Assuming the artist doesn’t have a warped sense of what’s right and wrong, i.e. there are some people that don’t have the ability to see their own actions as being wrong, but the causes of this are beyond my understanding and more multifaceted than I can reasonably fit into this blog post.
Sometimes there are photographs that are viewed as good by one group of people but not others. For example photos of pork are big in America but less so in the middle east. We shouldn’t strive to cause distress to people. But at the same time artists need to have a backbone and stand up for what they believe in. There are still places in the world where homosexuality isn’t accepted; Would you stop taking photos that have themes of homosexuality because someone somewhere doesn’t like what you’re doing?
We all form our society
We live in communities that have a variety of individuals with different worldviews and histories. This needs to be respected. In the age of the internet our photographs are things that can be transported to the other side of the world and potentially to cause distress to others. As authors we have very little say in how our images are interpreted. I think there are situations where an artist may make an image that they feel are good but other people feel aren’t good. An example would be photos that depict violence. Photography isn’t very well suited to explain the context that leads up to a particular situation. A photo of two people engaged in some kind of violent act can easily mislead the viewer. But at the same time photographs of war and violence shouldn’t be suppressed. These are parts of the world and the human condition and we should be aware of them. Simply showing these things in a photograph doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re for or against the thing depicted.
Ethics is grey
One important aspect about ethics is that it’s grey. It’s also the very thing that’s so frustrating. Humans evolved to live in relatively small tribes where there weren’t many options in terms of what we needed to value. We didn’t evolve for this world where there’s an ocean of various viewpoints constantly advertised to us and where individuals are pressured to choose the right thing to believe in. I don’t think it’d be much of a stretch to say we’re all kind of drowning in this sea of information. No one can create a perfect system that will work for everyone. And yet we crave these systems so much. We want to live in a community and make everyone happy so we can get along and feel normal and be productive. No one can really create that ideal system that can work in every situation. But humans crave systems. We crave the perfect answer with a passion. I don’t think my ideas are perfect. This is just one body of writing that I wanted to do in order to try my best to create a framework to think about what’s right and wrong within street photography.
I believe street photographers need to push the limits of what people think is acceptable. Like Picasso exhibiting the human body in all its glory street photographers need to be proud and display the beauty of the everyday. We need to have a backbone while being aware of the needs and sensitivities of the people around us. We need to actively work against causing people distress. Street photography can be beneficial to people by potentially making people feel as though their everyday lives are worth remembering and living in. But we also need to respect other people’s wishes even if we don’t understand why someone may not like an image.
Create joy with your photography!
I think as humans living in a community/society it’s more important to create moments between each other that are joyful (or the bare minimum not distressing) than it is to make every good street photograph that comes your way. If even one person in a group photo doesn’t like how they look then that should be taken into consideration when deciding whether to keep and/or exhibit the photograph. But that’s also up to you as an artist and community member. We always need to keep each other’s humanity and dignity at the forefront of our minds. We need to accept the fact that what we want may not be what’s best for everyone.
At the same time if you’re a street photographer and you have a camera in your hands and something important and beautiful is going on in front of you maybe you should think of yourself as having an obligation to educate the future as to what makes this thing important. If everyone tries to educate each other about what they feel the right way to treat one another is then we’ll be in a better world. Or at least I value the kind of education that’s to be gained through candid/street photography.
That’s all I have for today. I hope to continue these thoughts in the future. I put out a new blog post every Sunday if you want to read more.
-Jeremy