News in brief: Street photography and approval

tacit

Just stumbled across a great article by Kirk, about approval, tacit approval, implied approval and how it all applies to street photography.

The article discusses basic law in the US, what you’re able to do (and not to do!), along with a great discussion about the what, hows, and wherefores.

One part that particularly rang true with me was the following:

Sometimes I’ll see something I like and I will try to make eye contact with the person if I am too far away to speak to them. Doesn’t happen often because I’m most likely to be using lenses shorter than 85mm and that puts me close enough to be sociable. The deal I make with myself and the rest of society is this: If I’m part of society I need to understand that there are some unspoken rules that we all (to some extent) share. One of those is to respect a person’s sense of security and safety. Another is to respect a person’s circle of comfort and finally a respect for a person’s ability to control their own public image. I may have the right to do something or take a photograph of someone but that doesn’t give me the ethical or moral strength to create unpleasant situations for the subjects.

The rest of the article is well worth a read as well – Read the full story on the Visual Science Lab.

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