Post 4 : Issues with street photography.

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Ever had the experience where the internet was down and  have nothing else to do so an invitation to friends to the mall. And then after the first hour, someone takes out a camera and takes pictures. But then on friend takes a "stolen" shot of another one but this friend gets mad and insists of deleting the photograph. Assuming that everybody has one of those experience , the question was raised.

Of course there are some noticeable and seemingly unnoticeable issues when it comes to photography. Most of these issues are related to privacy. An example would be Voyeurism, according to Google, it means : "a perversion in which a person receives sexual gratification from seeing the genitalia of others or witnessing others' sexual behavior". The definition of voyeurism may seem to be harsh, exaggerated when it is related to street photography.

There are other issues that regards to street photography that doesn't seem to have a violent term. the website: http://everydayaperture.com/law/ stated a few problems and laws in relation to street photography, here are two them.

(c) Eric Kim

1.)  If you want to take my picture, you’ll need to get my permission first
2.) It’s against the law to take photographs of kids on the street

To view more of these, click the link above.

The first issue is somehow correct. It's their face, their eyes, their skin, one has to ask for permission to borrow or to make a copy of it. but there is this vivid memory where a guy commented on an article about invading some one's privacy, the commenter stated that if a person is at the public, therefore no body has rights to be angry when someone else takes a photograph of them.

A lot of people agreed with the commenter.


Thomas Leuthard had an interview about street photography. The Interviewer asked a question, "How do you manage a situation when they feel you are a disturbance?"

" Somehow you are always a disturbance when you are approaching people with your camera. You may be able to pretend to shoot something else. You may can hide in the masses of people. Sometime people really don’t see you, but most often they do." , said Thomas.

Thomas Leuthard's Interview

Disturbance is another issue with street photography and the subject. Imagine an innocent lady drinking coffee outside the coffee shop, and then a photographer comes too close and takes the lady's photograph. wouldn't that be disturbing? The photographer may have ruined the lady's morning.

This article is discussing the issues with street photography. Tips would be very useful if it was included here. Well here is Kai Wong's 50 do's and dont's in street photography.

If the video failed to load, click here

There may be issues about street photography, it's inevitable. But dealing with these issues may be fine with the help of some tips. Maybe, JUST maybe the best tip is to blend in and forget about the issues.