I was at a course on street photography at Tate Modern (London UK) only a few weeks ago. The law, we were told, is quite clear and this was what I understood:
There is nothing illegal in taking photographs in public places - e.g. roads, parks etc. It is not an invasion of privacy to take a photograph of someone in a public place.
If you are in a shopping mall or other clearly privately owned place it is then illegal to take photographs of both people or the property without the owners explicit (and I would advise) written consent.
However, if a person objects to having their photograph taken the waters do become more muddy, though it's again not actually illegal. We were advised that if someone objects offer to destroy the negative or delete the digital file.
Finally we were strongly advised to avoid taking photographs of children without the parent / guardian / caring adult's approval.
Howard
(Not an expert in U.K. law either)
LScottPht@xxxxxxx wrote:
In a message dated 12/8/04 6:45:49 AM Central Standard Time, wildimages@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
<< I didn't know you were an expert on UK law ;o)
>>
You are right. I am not an expert on UK law; however, I have an agent representing my work in the UK, and I have never had a situation come up where I would need a model release for my photos no matter where they were taken (if for editorial purposes). And, it was my own stupidity not to read all of the posts. I did not realize we were talking about the UK. So, perhaps the laws are different there, but my agent has never expressed this.
Leslie
