Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/04/11

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Subject: [Leica] photographing dead people.....
From: "Birkey, Duane" <dbirkey@hcjb.org.ec>
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 14:14:42 -0500

We have a newspaper in Ecuador that generally runs pictures of accident
victims on the front page....  I've passed a lot of accidents in Ecuador
where people were killed and bodies were hanging out of windows or  laying
out on the pavement.... and a nearby horrific airplane crash... and I've had
my cameras with me.... I've never even considered taking pictures of dead
people...   I personally feel that is the ultimate exploitation of people in
a time of crisis and if someone told me not to take a shot in that
instance... The last thing I would do would be to argue with him and I'd
quickly put the camera away... I place peoples feelings higher than my
photography.  I have shot difficult situations like funerals... but only in
cases where the family has asked me to cover that for family members who
weren't able to come to Ecuador.  And I try to be as discreet as
possible.....

But It's not my job to take pictures of dead people and I personally
wouldn't try to sell them on a freelance basis either... 

Duane Birkey

HCJB World Radio Quito Ecuador 
Duane's Photographs of Ecuador
http://duane_birkey.tripod.com