I have always been fascinated by street photography, but I have not always been bold enough to do it. I was worried about unwittingly photographing people who did not want to be photographed and finding myself on the wrong end of the law. But over the years I have continued to do my homework about these things and have grown comfortable photographing people in public.
That is, because I know my rights as a photographer I no longer allow the nervousness I still feel to stop me from photographing people in public. 🙂
Today someone asked on Ello about privacy concerns and whether I ask people’s permission before photographing them. Here is my response to them.
Those are valid questions and concerns!
I don’t ask, because as a street photographer I prefer capturing people in their normal state, not in a posed state. (Portraiture is not my passion.) I used to be reluctant, but it helps to know that legally no one has a reasonable expectation of privacy in public places. The only thing you cannot legally do with someone’s photo without their permission is use it for commercial purposes (as part of an ad campaign, to promote a product or service, etc.). But a photo taken of anyone in public without their permission can be used for art or for editorial purposes.
The way I understand privacy laws, as long as you are not harassing someone, you can photograph them in public. If the person has asked me not to photograph them or is obviously trying to hide from my lens (both of which have happened), I respect their wishes to not be photographed. Legally I probably still could photograph them, because they are in public, but life is too short for me to spend any part of it being an asshole. As for the person who recognizes their husband or wife with another person, the cheating partner should have thought about that before going out in public with the person they are having an affair with! LOL!
And yes, you can sell that art from a gallery/exhibit without the permission of your subjects. In fact, an artist in Tribeca did that with photos he had shot of people through the windows of their own homes without their consent. The judge threw out the lawsuit two parents brought against him when they learned photos of their children were in the exhibit. I find what he did to be creepy and disrespectful. This is a stretch of an artist’s right to artistic expression and something I neither condone nor plan to do. The same with catching someone in an embarrassing situation, like if their pants fell down in public. I treat my subjects with the same respect I would want someone to treat me with.