This reminds me of when I first started out in journalism. I was
fairly young, fresh out of grad school, and my initial assignment
for a small daily in northern Wisconsin was to shoot a high-school
wrestling meet, held in Minocqua as I recall. One of the kids
injured himself and so right away there I was hovering over the
coaches and fathers and other wrestlers, snapping dutifully away
with my trusty Olympus. Soon enough one of the onlookers took
umbrage with this and he, too, remonstrated. On this occasion cooler
heads prevailed, one gentleman physically hauling the protester away
to explain that I worked for a local paper, I was only doing my job
. . . .
Everyone has his own notion on issues of privacy and decency and all
that, and common sense only gets you so far. I imagine at a certain
juncture a photographer must find the ground he is most comfortable
to stand on with these questions in mind.
Tris
When travelling in countries where photography is more or less
forbidden, due to f. ex. religion, I often say that I work for a
newspaper (which I don't) and then it's OK to take a shot.
Come to think of it, isn't it strange that if I state that I may
publish their face all over, I get to take the photograph, but if I
want to take one for my most private collection (i.e. for almost
noone to see) it's a no no.
(Some of you may think I'm a lousy person lying like that, but I can
assure you it's not for taking advantage of people but simply to get
nice pictures to show to myself, my wife and a couple of friends. I
*do* respect culture in the countries I go to.)
Henrik Dahl
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