Re: [Leica] street photography

[Bmceowen@aol.com]

In a message dated 5/20/00 6:00:58 AM, rnkramer@mindspring.com writes:

<< 

But one comment of yours I would like to address is your belief that street

photographers sneak around, or are afraid to go up to people.  I might agree

with you if someone was using a 200mm to 400mm lens while hiding in the

bushes . . . 

Sounds just like what photojournalists do . . . hmmm ? . . . But in all 
fairness, the newspaper photographer generally uses the 180mm not so much to 
hide but for the compression and isolation effects of the long lens. 

<<But if I see what I think will be a powerful image, I will do my damndest to

get the shot *before* being waved off, regardless of what the subjects

wishes might potentially be.  You seem to have a problem with this, and I

honestly don't understand that.  People may or may not like having their

picture taken, but they (in most places) don't have the *right* to refuse if

in a public place.  As long as the image is in good taste and not

sensational or compromising in some way, I say go for it.>>

In principle I agree. In fact, legally you are absolutely right on. But in my 
experience a photo that somebody was going to be pissed about was pretty 
worthless. I don't shoot a lot of this stuff anymore since most of my work 
these days is focused on individual people but I used to shoot a lot of 
feature photos for the daily newspaper. Unless the person was just a graphic 
human element (as in a weather photo) we generally would try to get an i.d. 
for a cutline. If someone really didn't want their photo to appear in the 
paper we would honor that (though I can only recall that happening once or 
twice). A local newspaper is a member of the community which relies on 
community good will for its economic well being (especially in small towns, 
like where I worked). As a general rule, they don't see much profit in 
pissing people off -- at least not over a feature photo (of course this does 
not apply to hard news). I understand that a personal collection of photos, 
an art exhibit or an internet website doesn't require such sensitivity to 
people's feelings. 

On another level I just feel like it's bad for my "karma" to not respect 
people's wishes . . . though I will tell a story on myself. I remember one 
time where I became fascinated by a local cemetery which was very old and run 
down. I started going by after deadline to look for photos for a possible 
picture package someday. One day I found a young woman sunbathing on a tomb. 
I went up and talked to her to find out why she chose that place to sunbath. 
I did NOT ask her name because I didn't want to risk that she would express 
her desire not to appear in the paper. After visiting with her she went back 
to her sunbathing and I walked a distance away to shoot pictures WITH A LONG 
LENS -- in part for the photographic effect of isolating her among this 
stacked-up sea of headstones and tombs but also because I didn't want her to 
know she was being photographed. I had intended to save the photo for the 
future picture package but I didn't come up a feature photo one morning later 
that week so we ran it on the front page (without an I.D.). It was a nice 
photo but I was never very proud of it. I probably would have done it 
differently today -- I would have at least asked her name . . . 

Hey, I never said I didn't do the things I find fault with, you know . . .

Bob (hanging out in cemeteries) McEowen