I feel as street photographers we have a duty to document our lives so that people in the future will have something to look back to, this is every bit as important today as it was in our past. The thing is we also have to have respect, just because we can take a photo and (for the time being at least) the law is on our side doesn’t mean we have the right to annoy people on the streets, don’t forget that those people also have a say.
I’m writing this blog because of something that happened on instagram and it has to do with this photo:
Both Nico and I had no idea what was in store for us (more for him) over the coming weekend, he had many heated discussions and more than a few accusations about the rights we have as street photographers.
Just to go into the story a bit, I posted the photo and shortly after doing so a fellow street photographer Nico Froehlich (@Nicofroe) posted on the photo tagging the person and saying I hope they like it. So I sent a message to said person asking if they would like a copy of the photo and I hoped they liked it. I never got a response so I thought everything was ok, the photo was getting many likes and comments, then I got a comment saying I had no respect and I wasn’t a decent human being, etc, turns out the person had posted on his (hers) story that I was like every other man just trying to push my male dominance on the world, etc. Now, this really pissed me off, first off I am a decent human being and I was in no way trying to annoy anyone. So I sent a message saying if you didn’t like the photo why not just ask me to remove it.
Anyway, in the end, I removed it from my feed as I don’t like to upset anyone, this raised the question of was I right or wrong to remove the photo, I know I was right to remove the photo from my feed and I had no problem doing so. A few of my followers said they wouldn’t have removed it and that the person in the photo didn’t have the right to ask me to remove it, now that’s where I disagree, I believe 100% that the person has the right to ask for the photo to be taken down if they don’t like (for whatever the reason might be) and I also feel it’s up to the photographer at that point to decide if they want to remove the photo. As long as I’m asked nicely I have no problem with removing and if asked I’ll also delete the photo, however, if your going to be a A-hole about it you can almost certainly guarantee I won’t remove or delete the photo.
As with the photo that started all this, I removed it from my feed but I didn’t delete it (I wasn’t asked too) and the person in the photo took down the story and sent me a lovely short message saying sorry, I couldn't have asked for a better outcome, I also got a message from the person that posted on the photo saying I wasn’t a decent human being apologising. I think the thing that shocked me the most about the response I got from this person was the fact that they’re a public figure and activist/speaker for LGBT I couldn’t understand why would a public figure have a problem with being photographed.
The way I think we should all look at street photography, it’s not a right, it’s a privilege and I believe we should never forget that and let’s make sure we never lose that privilege.
Checkout @Nicofroe instagram feed
The following photos are of people that have stopped me and asked what I’m doing:
