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Photographing the homeless
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Because, it was in the description, I choose to write about it. I think that photographing homeless people, is a great ehtical/moral debate.
On one side of the fence, homeless, people should not be photographed without permission or concent. The reason, is because, you are photographing them in their "home". Thus it is an intrusion on their personal space. Homeless people are people, so there isn't a difference shooting a homeless person from across the street with a telephoto lens, then taking a photograph of a person, inside their house without their consent or knowledge. According to most state laws, photographing someone with out their consent is intrusion.
However, then you have the other side of the fence. Homeless people are in a public space, and so it is legal to take a photograph of them, just as long it is not embarassing or degradation of their character.
So how do I feel about the subject then? Well I do photograph homeless people. All the time actually, well used to more than I do now. I like photographing people as a study of society, even though I haven't written anything about. However, whenever I photograph a homeless person in public, I make sure to talk to them and ask their permission. I do this for 2 reasons. 1: A homeless person may freak out if you try to photograph them without their permission. However, more inportantly is the second reason why I do it. I like to learn more about my subject. How did he/she become homeless? Do they have any family left? Are they still in contact with their family? Are they trying to get off the streets? and so on. I feel with knowing about the person, I am better able to understand the subject more, and therefor take a better photograph.
In this picture, I photographed this homeless man in a park in Port of Miami. I especially like this photograph because when I look at it, I do not see a homeless man drinking in a park. I see a man with pride. Obviously he takes care of himself. I like this photograph because I think homeless people is an issue that is swept under the carpet in America. Howcome we do not offer better services for them? Sure we have shelters, but a lot of the time they are overbooked, dirty, and hard to find. Also, sometimes they ask for a form of id which some homeless people don't have. So back to the subject. I like this picture, because I don't see a drity, digusting, crack fiend, homeless man sleeping on a subway vent. I see man with pride. know's who is. Loves art. Which is true! This man is an artist, even had his own email address, whcih I emailed him the picture. After I took him picture I sat down with him and he offered me a drink of whiskey, so as being on the same level of humanity that he is, I shared a drink.
Posted at 11:24PM, 26 May 2005 PDT
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Of all the photos I have taken in my life this was the most difficult one I have ever taken on an ethical basis. I truly felt I was intruding on this woman's space, even though I requested her permission to take the photograph. I still debate in my mind whether or not to post or show this picture. For me it was not about taking a picture of a homeless person, rather more about the character and quality of the human herself and the strength and courage she has to get up every morning and be in this life. I agree with Jason, these people are proud and regardless of their choice or circumstance it is really not ours to judge, but to be considerate of their life and space in this life.
Posted 85 months ago.
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Ok, I am very interested in this group. The creator used my image posting as a springboard to start this up, so I feel honored to join (if I am not booted by leafy!)
I am currently under an open-ended commission to shoot the homeless by a local artist. Sorry I cannot post any images until I obtain permission from my contract. But, here is the question:
Is it wrong (read un-ethical) to shoot a group, and crop out singles to avoid modeling releases? I am not comfortable walking up to a group (tribe) of homeless and picking out a couple people to ask permission and get signatures. I have been physically accosted in the past, and wish to avoid the issue, I like my equipment and having it taken is not fun.
I also have deep respect for the privacy of others; on the street, by the river or in their homes!
Posted 85 months ago.
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... another great topic! ... i am hoping for some other replies soon! ... i was very troubled by this issue on fotolog until i understood what we can actually give the homeless by taking their photo ... what most of the homeless have lost is an identity, and we can give some of that back when we honor their presence by accurately portraying them without shame or guilt ... i first ran into this issue in a writing class nearly 20 years ago when i read the poems of a woman who had her relatives photographed by the legendery Walker Evans ... unfortunately, Mr. Evans made them look even more impoverished than they really were, actually asking them to remove their shoes to give them a poorer look, and things like that ... Mr. Evans justified his work by claiming that it helped to get money to those areas and raise the standard of living during the Depression ... but i suspect that some families had their dignity stripped a bit by being made to look less than they really were for a documentary photographer of Walker's ilk ... He would also consciously include telephone poles that were in an angle that was suggestive of the Christian Cross in order to play on the heart strings of those who had cash ...
Posted 85 months ago.
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Wow, that's fascinating about W. Evans, leafy.
There is a photographer (who is probably familiar to those who have come here from Fotolog) that has taken many many pics of homeless folks. I've invited him to join the group here, don't know if he will.
His work moves me to no end. Very much in the vein of telling people's stories, giving a voice to those who may not get a public voice otherwise. Sort of the opposite of exploitation, in my book.
edit -- and here he is!:
Posted 85 months ago.
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I have been photographing homeless men and women now for at least for years. I have been posting to my fotolog for about two. During all that time I have gone through much soul searching, especially when I started posting the images on fotolog. leafy was instrumental in an intense four or five days of debate over my work. I had many self doubts back then about the ethics and morality of the whole project. The debate raged on and felt never ending, spurred on by leafy. One thing that truly amazed me was how many people from the Internet community rallied in defense of my work. Most of the debate centered on the how and why, of what I was doing. The moral dilemma is one that anyone who shoots this kind of work will, in the end have to work out for himself or herself. For me, after all this time I have evolved some personal rules for how I work. These are my own rules and they seem to be working for me. I always ask permission, or have a long well established relationship where just shooting is understood to be OK and natural. I think it’s because I have become part of that environment, and have been accepted over time and it is totally understood that I take pictures. Also that they might be shown on line or wherever. Leafy has brought up the question of competency in the past. (Let’s leave that to another post) Many of the homeless people I photograph I have followed for years and have come to know them as “friends.” Homeless people I just meet for the first time I try to get to know them a little, and then later I tell them about my work and maybe ask permission for a portrait. I always give them a card with all the relevant information and even web address.(Many of them look in regularly at the web site) Just yesterday I was in a homeless campsite and one of the men pulled out a picture from my log he had printed at a drop in center. Feedback is important to me because it tells me in various ways that some good comes from the work. I wont go into stories now, but I am convinced for sure that there really positive out comes, from sharing of strong images. I can talk about it on another post later. Anyway, my point is look at your own motives, look at your methods and soul search often. My last point right now, is that the people I have met, what I have seen on the streets, and the enormous range of personal experiences I have had make me sure that it’s all been worth doing. I’m looking forward to sitting in with this group and sharing all your concerns and issues and points of view.
Regard to all.
P.S. I’m not much of a writer, but I will make attempts to state my point of view.
Posted 85 months ago.
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>I’m not much of a writer
not true!
Posted 85 months ago.
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There is a parallel discussion to this one going on in the (also) new group, Foresaken by Society, for those who are interested:
www.flickr.com/groups/topic/38622/
Posted 85 months ago.
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Thanks for mentioning us Hilary!
It’s a good thing to see ethics being discussed on Flickr, also in this group and I’d like to take this opportunity to invite you all to join our new group! FORSAKEN BY SOCIETY, where there has also opened a discussion based on the question by one of our members:
“Do you have any problems photographing the destitute?”
The group cover PEOPLE, PLACES and THINGS for those of you who have interest.
Let’s try to reflect over the Global Society that we all belong to and are responsible for, a reflection of the Flickr World that only we can change.
I look forward to you joining us and support any positive interaction we may have.
Gregory - The Hummingbird Project (Projeto Beija-Flor)
Posted 85 months ago.
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During the last decade of my daily work with street children and other children at risk, photos have played an immensely important part in their lives and the recuperation of their life history. Not only do I use the images in an important therapeutical context, reflecting over the past, the present and the future, but as we human beings are all prone to change, the images help remind us of our previous plight for survival and help direct our vision towards a better future.
Without having them as a reference, many of my kids would have gone through the same situations time and time again, just to figure out their lives. The images of their lives on the streets helped them take some very necessary shortcuts. That’s why I make a point of taking photos in absolutely every kind of situation I feel will mean something to them in their future.
Inspired by others on Flickr (especially awfulsara), I created some reflective images combining the past with the present and these have really been popular with the kids in question. Below are just a few of them:
The rest can be seen in our Diptych Inspiration Set).
I hope my little contribution can be of value to this discussion.
Gregory - The Hummingbird Project (Projeto Beija-Flor)
Posted 85 months ago.
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I like the discusion that is happening here. I think when photographing the homeless it does bring debate from people that would not normally view homeless people as a person, but merely determental to society. I think it is a similar debate on photographing people in 3rd world countires. Many people have an inner debate about doing so, because they are not physically changing the society tha tthey are photographing when they are in country. however, they do so, in hope that people will see it and then try to make a difference.
Posted 85 months ago.
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I am awe struck by carf's work and it's raw power. As I looked at it, and thought about my own self imposed photo-taking limitations. I really became excessively uncomfortable. I flashed back to the intense and uncomfortable discussions of my own work on line. Ethics and morality the central issues. I thought about the individuals who show up occasionally on my flog, and rip and disparage my work and it’s redeeming values. The attacks there are also sometimes aimed at my character and motives. This is often disturbing to me but, I’ve come to accept that this occasionally goes with the territory. I am now pretty comfortable with the work I have done. It is photographing and identifying homeless children that I am writing about now. My work has not included homeless children and on the few occasions I have included a homeless child in my photos they have remained anonymous figures with no personal identification. I guess you could call them a metaphor for homeless children.
My feelings are Not about carf's pictures per-se, but the combined issue of photographing homeless and the fact that they are also children. I am very torn about my own works avoidance of the matter, thus feeling guilty and uncomfortable. On one hand it seems perfectly logical that the photos may do much good in raising awareness of the problem, finding solutions, and as carf said the children may use the photos to aid in their own recovery. He said,” Not only do I use the images in an important therapeutical context, reflecting over the past, the present and the future, but as we human beings are all prone to change, the images help remind us of our previous plight for survival and help direct our vision towards a better future.”
I am and always have been torn on this issue as it relates to my own work, the law and the value of sowing something that may come back to haunt a child later. Is it my parental instincts? Is it how the work is viewed and interpreted? I don’t fully know if it is external or internal demon’s that get my heart pounding and cause me to point my camera elsewhere? I am not at all clear. I have come to terms with my own views on portraying adult homelessness, but here and now with this issue homeless children, I freeze. Dumb confused and maybe even “Chicken” to go down that road. I look at images of some of my hero’s like Walker Evans and Diane Arbus look all the time and as with Arbus admire her for her pure bravery. Comfortable…..no never. I’m not sure if I even want to go there with my work? I guess as I and continue to look at works such as carf’s, and my photo heroes, my own rules will morph into a set of personal rules that will help me deal with the challenges that accompany the kind of photography I have chosen for myself. I also know that comfort levels will change and as discussions like this continue and I learn much more I have other views to base those discussions on. Maybe we should rename this group. How to get good at making, “snap judgments.”
Sorry to get long winded.
BTW: Awfulsara made some excellent points about photographing children on the other thread: Photographing children: Where do we draw the line?
“I'm never clear what we are really "protecting" against anyway.” Please read her comments. I agree with much of what she wrote there.
Posted 85 months ago.
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Wow Gary (Mashuga), I thought I was usually “long winded”?
For one who stated earlier on that he is “not much of a writer”, I think you are doing very well at displaying your feelings in a constructive manner. I shall try to keep this short (even though I know that’s not my style).
I think it is important for each of us to define the reasoning behind the kind of photos we take as we all have our different preferences. Each photographer has his/her own personal reasons for expressing his/her own style of photography, which is pretty easy to determine if one browses through their photostreams on Flickr and reads the explanations that often follow.
Some of us see ourselves as photographers, others as artists, amateurs or professionals, simply parents or a combination of all. The categories are many, but luckily we are free citizens to put whatever label we like on ourselves and our reasons and intentions for producing the kind of art we choose to display in public. Exposing oneself through this powerful media called the Internet leaves oneself wide open to all kinds of judgment by others. That’s why it can be handy to define within oneself the reasons why one takes what one takes and how one takes.
I suppose, your own “set of personal rules” as you mentioned.
Outsiders who have never ventured into the real world of homeless and abandoned children have often questioned me on this topic, amazed by the reality of what they see in some of my images. That includes children’s judges and district attorneys, who would only otherwise come face-to-face with those children in the safety of their own environment and never in the situations that brought the kids to them in the first place. These people will also be the first to criticize and make judgment of your images if you don’t have your personal set of rules and reasons clear for exposing what you do the way you do. You have to be comfortable with what and how you do things otherwise others will not feel comfortable about you.
I am not a photographer and I haven’t the foggiest idea of camera techniques and bless the day the digital turned up (even though I would love to dig deeper into photography some day when I find the time). I do feel though, that I have an eye for artistic judgment and that guides me through the steps of producing the kind of pictures I make (with a little help from PhotoShop). But more than ever what dominates the end results are my personal reasons for taking those pictures in the first place. The camera is nothing more than a valuable tool in my daily striving to reach my objectives with these rather special people. If I feel it’s right then I do it, independent of what outsiders think because they are the last ones to understand the kind of situation these kids find themselves in. I get results in my work and I’m proud of those results. We actually recuperate street kids at CARF and there are very few in this country that do. You would have to have some damned good arguments against my taking the pictures I take to make me stop doing just that. If I wasn’t doing a good job recuperating these kids then my set of rules would certainly have to change, but as it stands I’m sure that those images will never come back to haunt the children, to the contrary, they constantly seek out those images to build and strengthen their self-esteem.
I would never dream of doing what I do for profit or speculation, or simply to display the lives of people in destitute, which is probably much of the reasoning behind the kind of criticism or questioning that often arises from observers without the context.
Oh well, I think I’m the one that’s getting long winded now so I had better sign off. I would love to see some of your “famed” images on homelessness from Fotolog and hope you will be uploading them soon to Flickr and contribute to our new group called FORSAKEN BY SOCIETY
PS! Sara has some great, down to earth viewpoints on photographic ethics (as you will all discover by following the other thread in this group at the moment) so I recommend everyone who hasn't already done so to visit her photostream.
Gregory - The Hummingbird Project (Projeto Beija-Flor)
Posted 85 months ago.
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Leafy, I also became acutely aware of this topic during a college class! However, I have never photographed a homeless person. I think that if I could ever get up the nerve, I would act in the manner in which I've been brought up: to treat people as I would like to be treated.
You have all brought up many valid points and I have enjoyed reading your threads.
Have any of you heard of Dorothea Lange?
Here's a link:
www.loc.gov/exhibits/wcf/wcf0013.html
Mac
Posted 85 months ago.
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This is a very nice group. I'm happy to found it.
I did two photos where i felt uncortable about this theme. Both photos people were sleeping on the streets, and for sure i felt as a invasor (and i believe i was). I decided not do it anymore. One of them i posted in my photostream (i will send to this group), the other, i don't know if i will post on Flickr. As Mashuga, I always ask people permission before i photograph them, and when people say no, or feel unconfortable, i don't do it. I also give them a card with the information they need to contact me and my web address.
I'm thinking about what are we really asking, or looking for here? I'm not sure. I don't feel guilty while shooting poor people or homeless.
I used to work for Elle Magazine as an art editor, and there was where i felt guilt. Really very guilty. I was doing a magazine for a straight minority in my country, which has a terrible money distribution and such a social injustice. I was showing a wonderful fake world to support high consume and feed this abyssal between my people. This was a crisis to me, and also became a crime in my feelings. That is what i feel as unethical! Maybe that would be another topic here.
And for those who are worried by the Photoshop uses, oh my, maybe you have no idea what beauty's magazines, nude's popular magazines, and others, as teen's magazines have been doing... and even before the photoshop's fever.
Dorothea Lange is a nice example to think. How do we feel looking her work? Her documentation about that time? Don't you feel she made us thinking about how human being make their choices, how we are riding our steps, and how can we try to change some things and build a better world?
There was a thought, i think is a Susan Sontag's thought about that. Something which says that photography is a language, and when you shot you choose what to say or what to ask, you choose the focus to people think about. It's a theme which you offer to the world.
So, as the Dorothea's visual antropology documentation show us some uncofortable themes, some bad sides of our reallity, why we don't? I think the only opposition is to shoot when people don't want be shooted. As sometimes they don't, we must respect.
I feel now lighter and much better working for homeless, showing the world which won't go to the everyday magazines, sometimes making denunciations, than hiding this from my life, or others. I can't agree with the possibility to ignore (more than we alredy do today) all those homeless people (and problem) because we feel shame about showing their life's conditions. I also feel a subtle but strong difference on how we show those people. We can show the homeless people's misery or we can show the homeless people's equality. The first choice puts you in distance, a kind of observer of their condition; the second choice brings you inside their world, feeling a identification, a closer sensation; as jdubfudge said, 'on same level of humanity', which is just the trully reality. It's good to understand that this homeless guy could be you. Shall be a way to sensibilize others to this world problem (ours problem).
Gregory's said Let’s try to reflect over the Global Society that we all belong to and are responsible for, a reflection of the Flickr World that only we can change. I think this is a way to understand what makes many of us to have the guilty feeling about shooting the homeless people. We all know we are a global society, we all know we have a kind of responsability about that, so we would find personal ways or coletive ways to work on that.
So forgive me some wrong words as i have some english limitations.
Posted 85 months ago.
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You did just wonderful there gal!
Really glad you could share those deeper reflections with us all.
Finding personal ways or collective ways to work on social change based on the Flick community is an idea I am working on with some others in Flickr at this moment. I would love to see the Flickr community make an impact in terms of social responsibility. I'll contact you soon Tati about these ideas.
Gregory - The Hummingbird Project (Projeto Beija-Flor)
Posted 85 months ago.
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I posted a photo that I took, and thought about very much in relation to this group. I'll say that I was very aware of many issues as I pressed the shutter. It is a non-picture of Helen. Being so new to Flickr will someone tell me how to insert that picture on this post? (Yes, I'm slow)
Anyway, the picture of Helen is my statement on her parents, and I wanted to keep her private. Her parents are former homeless people that met on the street. They both have terrible histories. They are both now taking Methadone to deal with their drug addiction. They are off the street and living in an apartment. The are both parenting really well, and taking great care of Helen. I shot this photo yesterday thinking very much about what I had written here about my views on homeless photos, and photographing children. Helen's parents both said it was fine to post her photos. (Not the anonymous ones, but one including her face) I shot this as a personal statement. I have been photographing Helen's parents for about three years.
Now that I wrote this, does the photo become less cute? This issue is such a struggle for me. For those that don't know my homeless photos you might want to take a look at: www.fotolog.net/mashuga/
I haven’t yet decided if I will migrate this body of work to flickr or keep on keeping on?
Posted 85 months ago.
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re. permission: i very rarely ask the permission of any subjects that i photograph in the street. i'm more comfortable with the "uninterrupted reality" approach than i am with the "posed reality" for several reasons - mostly due to a desire for veracity of momentary reality (i.e. "decisive moments") and probably also from shyness (many a posed opportunity has passed by when i feel low). yes, to observe rather than participate - even though that is a difficult line to draw in a city. you participate simply by being there, and besides - how to truly "participate" in a homeless person's life without living as they do, without the knowledge of a return to a warm bed? we're all observers and participants to varying degrees.
lately most of my shooting is done while i work as a document courier, walking around the c.b.d. of sydney. the vast majority of my subjects are city workers, tourists, buskers etc - if pressed, i'd say that my ongoing project is an honest demographic portrait of the financial heart of my city, made by a living-working-walking member of the community. i see "beautiful" people doing ugly things, and "ugly" people doing beautiful things. sometimes the actors are homeless people. should i exclude them from my vision - censor myself - because of their "sacred cow" status in society? (thanks to kurt vonnegut for that one, he used the idea in "timequake" - that homeless people in affluent societies are treated similarly to the sacred cattle of india, left to roam the streets and have lip service paid to them while "normal" life flows oblivious around them - so long as they stay quiet and chew their cud.)
i have very few boundaries while shooting on the street. honesty is one of them. above, someone said that since the street is the home of these folks then we should act as though we are in their home - maybe, but it's my extended home too, as any city is for any resident. i refuse to show my streets to the world through rose-coloured lenses lest the world, and future generations, get the wrong idea: that somehow glamourous sydney is free of homelessness, madness, cruelty, indifference ...
... that said, a great many of my "keepers" have never been published, and will probably wait another few years (if not decades) before being shown. i'm so much a part of what i'm doing, that a lot of my work needs reflection and distance to aptly process, to lessen the fogging of these ethical convolutions. as it is i generally only publish shots of marginalised people in non-exploitative ways that would ethically satisfy most of the posters above - i.e. anonymously or with permission. i guess that comes down to the discussion of usage, and i'm not quite up to that one right now. the walker evans issue, alone, could take up a whole thread. i'll just paraphrase robert adams: "the rationale is respect, a deference to the dignity of the subject." if the subject deserves some dignity, i will attempt to show it. the exceptions to that are rarely homeless people, but at the other end of the power spectrum instead (police, businessmen etc.).
here's one contribution i can make to the visual element (without the tortuous process of going through backups on saturday morning) - www.flickr.com/photos/mr_walker/18614587/ (i don't know the html for linking either - the f.a.q. isn't very helpful). it's on the "safe" side of the ethical fence: a strong inherent visual message, condemning the prevailing social patterns without exploiting the identity of the subjects - yet some could say i've objectified the people in the photo, and that it is exploitation in a broader way ... a third party could say i've unduly condemned the society which creates the scenario ... where, oh where to draw the line?
(sheesh, did someone mention "long-winded"? thanks for bearing with me as i clean out some rust ;-)
p.s. to mashuga: i'd wondered how that pic of helen came to be here, good to know the background. as for your conundrum ... i can only fall back to what you once told me: "if it feels right, keep going." or maybe what carf said above: "You have to be comfortable with what and how you do things otherwise others will not feel comfortable about you." the photo of helen is still a gorgeous portrait (albeit abstracted), like so many of your quirky "anythinggreat" takes - and as part of your homeless reportage it adds a strongly emotive element as well as adding to the honesty of demography - which you otherwise address comprehensively. i think you should try to include some representation of the children you meet, and the portrait of helen is a fine "middle way" to do it.
(... and - keep on keeping on at fotolog, i think, even if you do migrate the work to flickr as well. you've still got a huge audience there, and many supporters.)
p.p.s. to tatiana: congratulations for escaping the vortex of glossy glamour magazines. it is exactly the kind of propaganda they portray that i find motivation to undermine. your story gives me hope for members of that industry :-)
Posted 85 months ago.
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To my good friend: mr walker,
The portrait of Helen is here because her parents are people I photographed on the streets for a long time. They are both recovering drug addicts and they were taking turns watching her as each went to their Methadone clinic and then returned. I took this a day after a discussion in this group so photographing children and especially a child from this circumstance was heavy on my mind. I took this shot with Helen's moms blessing. (See hand in photo) but it was very much a response to many issues. Societies and mine.
I think it came out in a way that is captivating and in many ways more appropriate than a "straight" portrait.?
Posted 85 months ago.
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Many times the homeless people I photograph have a little jar or cup in front of them. This may sound unethical itself, but usually combined with a few words some loose change will make them realize you are not against them. This is usually their main concern.
However, when their face is not clearly visable I don't bother to get permission from them, but if they tell me no I won't take the picture, no matter what.
Street musicians seem to act the same way- they want you to take a picture AND drop some change into the guitar case.
But, in regards to the homeless, those who are not completely out of it are usually up for a conversation anyway, which can be enlightening sometimes. When they realize that I am trying make some sort of social change with the photos they tend to identify, but not always.
My golden rule in regards to photographing these people is almost medical "above all, do no harm". Of course, some times, like when photographing violence, I will be causing "harm" to some (those doing the violence) and maybe offering a hand to others (the victims). My sympathy is always with the victims.
But I should add, things tend to go on a case by case basis. Sometimes I may not publish photos that I took, because of ethical issues.
Posted 83 months ago.
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I have come back and read over this thread several times. This is something I have thought about for a long time and talked about for a long time and in a lot of places. Those who know me know that I am ridiculously long-winded, so I will try to make it short here.
The cardinal rule I use in all my photography is permission. I don't ever want my camera to make people feel I am taking something from them, or to leave them feeling exposed or violated. On the contrary, I would like them to feel that they as a person have been seen and acknowledged as a person. I think I have taken one photograph in my life of a sleeping person in public, and I allowed myself that decision only because he WASNT homeless.
Almost all I do with my camera is photograph people. Going through the people I have photographed I could say all sorts of things about them - many are homeless and many are junkies, for example. But for me, NONE of my photographs are pictures of homeless people or drug addicts, and my photography is not about homelessness or drug addiction. They are all pictures of people first and foremost. I am photographing them because of what I see in them, because of THEM, and not because of what category they fit in or as an anthropological or political study. I don't want to reduce them or mythologize them except in terms of their personal qualities. I've said it before: I don't photograph homeless people. I photograph people, many of whom sleep in unusual places.
Velvetart's suggestion about giving them money is nice but I don't mix that with my photography. I will on principle never photograph anyone who asks me for money to do it. I give away loads of change and other kinds of assistance, but I am not looking for people willing to sell themselves as objects; I have no problem with that and don't put them down for it, but this kind of relationship is the exact opposite of why I take photographs, and its the exact opposite of what I want my camera to do.
There are lots of very photogenic street people in my neighborhood. I live in a neighborhood full of them. If you see one of their pictures on my flickr its because I've established a relationship with them of some kind first, as Mashuga does.
Posted 82 months ago.
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As a novice photographer, I have always been curious about the legal implications of taking pictures of people. Here are two links I found useful in explaining the various issues (US Centric).
norcal.gag.org/legalities/2004/legalities_no08.html
norcal.gag.org/legalities/2004/legalities_no07.html
Posted 82 months ago.
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Hello all I just joined after finding this thread in a search.
I learned a lot from this thread thanks everyone! I didn't read everything though. I've always wanted to break into this type of photography and take portraits as a means to make the homeless look more relateable and therefore encourage the general public to do something. I am a social human being. However, I've held back because I am female and short. Is getting involved with volunteering at a homeless shelter my best bet then for my own safety or can I get away with asking a friend to accompany when I go out shooting? I live near the highway and there's an entire village of sorts not even a few blocks from where I live in my nice warm apartment :(
Any other female photographers who have done this and do you have personal stories you'd like to share with me?
Posted 16 months ago.
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you should contact gary (Mashuga) www.flickr.com/photos/mashuga/
I think he has the most experience doing this type of work in NYC more than anyone else I know, plus, he's been interviewed by NPR ... ;o)
Originally posted 16 months ago.
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leafy (a group admin) edited this topic 16 months ago.
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Hello everyone,
I had read this thread a couple of weeks back, and now this very issue is arising in a voting critique group. Here's the link to the discussion:
www.flickr.com/groups/thegutter/discuss/72157626055038739/
Thank you all for talking about this. Take care. :)
Posted 15 months ago.
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I think you should link this discussion over at that group.. It appears that the issue has been more thoroughly explored here.
Posted 15 months ago.
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Photographing the homeless - I joined this group because I like the posts in this section. However, I noticed only after I joined that this can't really be a discussion group if these posts go back a long time ago. Nevertheless, the points of view brought up on taking pictures of homeless people is one I'm interested in learning about. I can't have a discussion by myself!
Posted 12 months ago.
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Have a chat with gary: www.flickr.com/photos/mashuga/
Posted 12 months ago.
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