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?
The hot takes of a friend who knows fuck all about photography are not really relevant. Bottom line: don’t break the law and anything else goes.
Some of the best and most lauded photography of all time is documentary in nature and takes place in public.
Just take good photos and don’t post images where the people in them don’t add something to the frame. There’s lots of people posting lackluster street photo images where the people in the frame don’t make sense or don’t serve the photo. Avoid that, because it’s creepy or wrong, but because you should only post your best work. If having a person in the photo is what makes the photo good, then go for it. In that context it’s not important that the subject be flattered either, in some instances the opposite might be what’s needed for the photo to be good. Study the greats, learn the difference between good and bad.
Now as someone who owns a small media company and has 10 photographers on staff, I’m going to say that I doubt your instagram has as much weight as you think it does on your university application. People graduate from art school with straight up objectively terrible portfolios. They apply for jobs with me all the time. So I think someone evaluating your profile for admission doesn’t have the bar set extremely high. The expectation is that you’re not super trained at this point. They are probably more concerned about judging a general interest level, if they even consider it at all.
Worry less about this and more about learning your craft technically. I feel like technical skills are wholly undervalued in fine art photo programs. I often prefer to hire people with less experience because they have less bad habits I have to train out. The best people on my team didn’t go to art school.