[Leica] BD PAWS

[bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)]

What we're getting from Karen is a heavy-duty academic perspective. I've
run into the same thing at MIT. In THEORY, any projects my students do
are, get this, supposed to be run by an HRB - human subjects review
board! Needless to say, we're not doing that. But that was the advice I
got from the person in anthropology who teaches an excellent course
called Photography and Truth.

And from my view point, you're right when you say that if shooting a
homeless person is taking advantage of them, then shooting anyone
without permission is taking advantage of them. However, that said,
there are obviously degrees of 'taking advantage.' And I would posit
that the more disadvantaged a person, however you define disadvantage,
the more seriously you have to consider the possibility that you are, in
fact, 'taking advantage,' and you have to react to that.

B. D.

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Craig Semetko
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2005 11:21 AM
To: lug@leica-users.org
Subject: [Leica] BD PAWS


Karen,

By this definition, taking anybody's photograph, homeless or not, 
without their permission is taking advantage of them. That can be 
argued either way, but if it HCB, Winogrand, Frank, and a ton of other 
greats asked for permission and didn't "feed off" unknowing subjects 
before they took their pictures, street photography wouldn't have 
happened. Very rarely do I ask for permission---most of the time it 
ruins the moment.  If someone sees I'm shooting and says, "No 
pictures," I respect that, otherwise, I take my shots. Am I taking 
advantage of people? I guess I am. Geez, now I feel like a criminal...

Ready to turn himself in,

Craig

On Apr 19, 2005, at 7:57 AM, lug-request@leica-users.org wrote:

> Message: 6
> Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 13:20:09 +0900
> From: Karen Nakamura <mail@gpsy.com>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: B.D. PAWS
> To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org>
> Message-ID: <a06001083be8a3731571c@gpsy.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
>
>>
>> Not by taking advantage of these people, rather by using our 
>> compassion, our utmost sensitivity,  and our lens to be their 
>> lobbyist....
>
> Taking their photo without their permission is, by definition, I think

> taking advantage of the homeless. If you really feel like being a 
> compassionate photographer, ask for their permission first. Otherwise,

> you're just feeding off of them.
>
> Karen
>
> Karen Nakamura http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/
> http://www.photoethnography.com/blog/
>

 
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