A while ago I made a post on hear asking if it was OK to post pictures of people in street photography, the general consensus was yes and its legal in England.
For some context I’m building a portfolio for uni and wanted to show off all my images.
Well my frend mentioned today it was super creepy and run as I didn’t have their consent.
I’m torn, it was in a public place, its completely legal, you can’t really tell who thay are in most of them,
Idk, I feel super bad, but I don’t wanna delete them as they really add to my uni application. All photos have some people in If you’re taking street photography.
What should I do?
So there are two separate but related things:
1 Your behavior when taking photos.
2 Publishing these photos in public places like Instagram.
Sounds like it is more the second one. I agree with P5_Tempname19 that the answer depends on how you portray them. I think you should also consider the situation they are in (what kind of activity). Even if you can photograph a children’s sporting event legally (and often you can’t) without permission it is not going to be a good idea. A parent and child walking down the street - probably fine.
Also consider if the people are in a vulnerable position or situation. A disabled person struggling to navigate a city not set up for them, or a homeless person who doesn’t have anyplace else to be except on the street. A child crying because their parent has been hurt. Of course that doesn’t mean you should not take photos of these kinds of people. There are also important stories to tell there. But you should be extra careful to think about their dignity when sharing these photos publicly.
Asking for permission is always good, but I know is not always practical.
If you feel uncomfortable about a particular photo I think a good exercise is to write a small, maybe two sentence, justification for yourself. It forces you to think through the competing principles involved.
Of course, most of my photos are simply showing people going about their daily life, for example a woman with her bike waiting to cross the road. Or a group of people woth a dog. I never post bad photos of people