Ethics in Street Photography and the dilemma it poses.
Note: This article contains some explicit imagery
Cover Image: Brice Gilden
Has this happened to you?
You are about to press the shutter and suddenly you hear someone asking, “You will get your photo, but what will we get?” This happened to me during one of my photo walks in 2017. Even though I have never enjoyed taking photos of random people on the street, sometimes a scene does enchant me and this was one such moment.This incident nudged me to ask myself more such questions. "Why am I taking their photos? Is street photography without people even street photography? Do I have to ask before pressing the shutter?"
From an unbiased point of view, photography seems like an intrusive affair that can make someone look like a stalker. It makes me feel like I am using these people and their stories to my benefit. These thoughts arose again recently during my visit to Auroville, India where people were not comfortable being in front of the camera, something I haven’t experienced in a while.
Can ethics get in the way to photograph the true moment?
Sharbat Gula, famously known as The Afghan Girl photographed by Steve McCurry was asked how she felt when the photograph was taken and for the first time, she was able to say that she felt angry. So the question is - would the famous photographs exist if the photographer waited for their subjects’ permission?
Like this next photo where Nick Ut captured a young girl running naked in the streets of Vietnam. I doubt he could question the ethics while capturing the terrors of the war.
How far would you go to get the unfiltered, real, raw photo?
Shot barely at an arm’s length from his subjects, using flash, Bruce Gilden's early works are visceral, compelling, and unreservedly forthright, pervaded with grit, humour, and intrigue. In a 2019 interview with the Guardian, he explained the connections he saw in these portraits with his own childhood experiences in a violent home.
“I don’t do this to exploit people,” he said at the time. “It’s who I am. I’ve seen it in my own home to some degree. What I photograph is what I lived.”
Photography is a voyeuristic medium, like looking into other people’s windows at night. I’m not a peeping Tom, but if I’m walking down the street — you see the lights on and those beautiful bookshelves and the people drinking martinis — I like to look. So I translate that into taking pictures. It gives me something to do. No matter where I go in the world, I go specifically to take photographs. I don’t take vacations.
-Bruce Gilden
Another such photographer was Bruce Davidson, who is well known for his project SUBWAY occurred at the height of New York crime which featured photos from his exploration of New York City. He began this project in the spring of 1980 and only focused on the city’s subway system. He stated that to prepare himself for the task ahead. He started a crash diet, including a military fitness regime and early morning jogging in the park. He knew he had to train like an athlete to carry around his heavy equipment in the subway for hours each day. Also, just for a precautionary measure, he wanted to be in good shape if something went wrong down there in the underground. His initial expeditions into the subways were hindered by the fears of attack from street urchins which he later would overcome and was able to capture some of the most terrifying moments of evil, violence, and death; something street photographynewbies would struggle with.
Subway by © Bruce Davidson
Intimacy Or Intrusiveness?
Many of these stories demanded the photographers to be intrusive, leading them to beintimate with their subjects.
All this leads me to believe that these questions are normal but there are some general ethics that we all must follow (for example photographing children) however, there is a need for every photographer to define what their ethics are. Public domain is legal and though we may say Bruce Gilden was only able to make these photographs because this world was not foreign to him, we should also note that knowing your ethics in photography can help build your style. After all, how can one be intimate without being intrusive?
“ Photography was a license to go wherever I wanted and to do what I wanted to do.”Arbus wrote. The camera is a kind of passport that annihilates moral boundaries and social inhibitions freeing the photographer from any responsibility toward the people photographed. The whole point of photographing people is that you are not intervening in their lives, only visiting them."
On photography by Susan Sontag
Recently, I found the real reason which pulled me back from photographing people early on was not ethics but rather the need to converse with them. Being an introvert, I had to change my shy and reserved nature. So by talking to them about their work life, stopping for some tea at a tea stall, or asking them to pose for me, I invite them to let me breathe into their space for a moment.
© Hunny Awatramani
My current style is not directed towards people but to show more of their lives whilst also keeping the mystery. This to me seems a good balance where I find my ethics in photography not being compromised.
Sources
https://thewire.in/media/afghan-girl-steve-mccurry-national-geographic
https://www.pixsy.com/the-10-most-famous-copyright-cases-in-photography/
https://independent-photo.com/news/bruce-gilden/
https://americansuburbx.com/2010/10/interview-interview-with-bruce-gilden.html
https://publicdelivery.org/bruce-davidson-subway/
https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/13783/bruce-gilden-photographer-cherry-blossom-book-japan-tokyo-osaka-interview
This is one of my favorite blogs. 🙂