Quote:
Originally Posted by earleygallery
I still don't understand, and no one has been able to answer, IF I went to the Eiffel Tower, or Notre Dame, and wanted to take a photo of it, would I first have to walk around and ask EVERYONE who was in shot for their permission?
By the time I'd done that, and got back to where I wanted to take the photo from there would be some new people in shot. Do I go around asking again?
If one person in the crowd of perhaps a couple of thousand objects, do they have the right to stop me from taking the shot (even if they will be unrecognisable or facing the other way?).
Can someone offer a genuine answer?
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The one difference with your stated example, James, is that you would be taking an "obvious" picture of the Eiffel Tower or Notre Dame as the main (and inanimate) subject with "people" as only a secondary and incidental ingredient to your photographic canvass. This would MOST LIKELY be either "understood" by most people OR people would not even notice you since [in your stated example] it would also be "obvious" (by the camera position and your attitude) that they are NOT the subject of your attention.
But aside from my "obvious" attempt at trying to address the grounds for your premise .........................
I very much enjoy your humorous use of "reductio ad absurdum". And I would likewise take the picture of the Eiffel or Notre Dame regardless.
Seriously ..... These days it is getting difficult to take "un-posed" or spontaneous pictures of 'HUMAN SITUATIONS OR MOMENTS" (not Towers & Churches) because of the ever developing paranoia and distrust that seems to be gripping the globe as a result increasing "threats to survival of humans, by humans". It's not the camera that is suspect but maybe the being behind it.
I was taking pictures of toddlers and children swinging on the "baby swings", trying to capture the delight on their cherubic faces. The parents were there within a few feet of them and most had no trouble allowing me to shoot after I made the courteous "raising of the camera and tentative look of seeking permission" . A few came over and asked "For what newspaper or magazine" I was photographing. I simply answered that I was taking photos as a hobby and for my own self and a delightful exchange and conversation with them ensued. NO ONE confronted me or asked me to stop. The solution seemed to be all in the courtesy that was shown and the perception engendered in those parents.
BUT ......... truth be told .......... that day in the public kiddy park or at the merry-go-round .......... there happened to be NO psychologically diagnosable or sensitive individuals around. Nor were there individuals with "ultra sensitivity" or emotional issues concerning personal privacy and boundaries. NOR did I run into someone with JUSTICE or FEAR as the main Filter through which they consistently viewed the world around them.
I have to be prepared for even that experience occuring by chance, because our world is changing .............. but until that experience occurs by chance ........
HAPPY SHOOTING.
