Steve,
So sorry that I offended you. Or perhaps simply infuriated you. Such was not my intention. And I think you miss the point. I got the feeling that Dave was talking about a personal, not legal, definition of "exploitation." I was under the impression that he, personally, felt that he was exploiting someone else on a private level.
There are legal concerns, which you addressed, but there are also concerns we each must cope with inside ourselves. These are our personal morals. My feeling was that Dave was struggling at that level, not the legal argument that so infuriated you.
But the good thing is that your note prompted a flurry of other notes that helped to clarify the legal side of the issue.
Please try to find it in yourself to forgive my "ignorant attitude." And thanks to Bob, Dave and Leslie for educating me without chastising me further.
peace and pixels,
rand
----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Shapiro" <sgshiya@redshift.com>Subject: > Re: Brighton Beach Brooklyn and exploitation
Rand and all,
I think that it is important for photographers to first reflect on their personal responsibilities and ethics and then the legal requirements.
There are those, I know, that feel they have an absolute right to do whatever they want "cause it's legal" and they can't be persuaded otherwise.
I agree that all pictures can be exploitative in some way. As a street photographer I seldom hesitate to take a picture. When I do it is because of an ethical pre-disposition not to shoot certain subjects and in a certain way. I try to be conscious of the effect the picture might have in whatever context it is used. I think making "sneak shots" is a good way to get yourself in an ethical bind. Do you keep the subject un-aware so that they seem "natural" and/or so that they didn't get angry at you?
The often repeated notion that the story is more important than the subject is probably wrong too. It is journalistic hubris akin to telemarkerters or spammers saying they are performing a service because of the small fraction of a percent of the people they annoy want their product. Taking the idea farther, there has been some chatter lately about the ethics of showing the dead killed in war. In the U.S. the feeling seems to be that it's OK to show their guys. The story about our fatalities gets told somehow without the pictures of the corpses.
AZ
Build a Lookaround! The Lookaround Book, 2nd ed. http://www.panoramacamera.us
