RE: [Leica] What I did today ..or...GET A LIFE!

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

I know I'm going to piss a  lot of my fellow LUGers off, but I am quite
amazed by this thread...."Backing off" has nothing to do with the fact that
there is "little point in making photographs of someone who does not want to
cooperate with you - assuming we are not talking here about a genuine
newsworthy scene, being photographed by someone who has every intention of
passing said photo along to a news organization. Rather, it has to do with
what does or does not make a society civil. Why do any of us think we have
the right, for our own amusement, to photograph someone who makes clear they
do NOT want to be photographed, particularly someone we don't know.

In photographic relations, as in relations between the sexes, NO means NO.
What don't you understand about that, as the feminists are wont to ask?

B.D. AND Dr. Blacktape.

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Godfrey
DiGiorgi
Sent: Sunday, September 19, 1999 5:33 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] What I did today


>I think it is rude to photograph someone who clearly does not wish to be
>photographed.  However, I also think that a lot of people object to
>photographs unnecessarily.

I agree. There's a weird phenomenon that goes on: You try to take
someone's picture, they object, you cajole, they sometimes relent (if
it's a friend, you sometimes take the picture anyway and they object
vociferously), then when you have some prints, they beg for them, pass
them around to friends, and all the while say how awful they look...

In street shooting, either I'm photographing completely surreptitiously
(rare) or I like to engage my subjects and get their eyes towards me.
I've only rarely had a problem with people who adamantly insisted that I
not take their picture, and I think it's the only courteous thing to do
by apologizing for the trouble and backing off. Unless it's an event of
some newsworthy scope, there's little point in making photographs of
someone who does not want to cooperate with you.

Godfrey