How can street photographers rebuild trust with society?
Photo by Annushka Ahuja
When I speak to seasoned street photographers, a common theme comes up; people respond more negatively to street photography today than they did in decades gone by. What can we do to change this?
Street photography before the digital age
If we think back to the pre digital age, there were a lot less reasons to not trust street photographers. People didn’t worry about where their image may end up. The worst case scenario is perhaps a newspaper or gallery.
But, for the most part they would only exist in photographers' personal portfolios at home. Look at Vivian Maier for example, most of her frames lived undeveloped in boxes.
Today things are different. Street photographers (and society in general) are constantly posting images online. They’re being spread across multiple social media platforms and potentially, millions of people can see them.
24 hour news cycles didn’t exist either. This means people were not constantly bombarded with negative information about members of society. Now, we’re always seeing news stories highlighting why we should be less trusting of our fellow humans — even if statistically there are far more good people than bad.
Our culture today also feels a lot more confrontational than years gone by. It seems like one way or another we’re battling each other. Instead of finding common ground we’re all trying to win the fight - this bleeds into street photography as well.
I say this because I see a lot of street photographers looking to shut members of the public down rather than find a way to build trust in what they’re doing. “It’s not illegal” and “assume your privacy is gone in a public space,” are the two most common rebuttals to those who question what a street photographer is doing.
In many countries, those statements are true — but they’re not always helpful. You can be inline with the law but still be disrespectful, which only harms how people respond to street photography.
Can society learn to love street photography?
When I listen to street photographers who built the community, I’m often jealous. I too want to live in a society where people welcome good people, documenting culture and the goings on in day to day life.
Perhaps it’s utopian to believe this could ever happen. However, I do believe there are things we can do to get street photography in a much healthier position when it comes to public opinion.
I think the first step is to be more mindful about the images we share online. Pause before posting unflattering images of others. A good rule I live by is asking myself “would I be happy to see this image of myself on the internet?”. If the answer is no, it stays backed up on my files.
Street photographers need to improve
Next, I would consider how we interact with the general public. I should preface this by saying I think most street photographers conduct themselves well. They know how to diffuse confrontation and show they’re practice isn’t bad or with ill intentions.
As I mentioned before, there are some however, that prefer to shut people’s concerns down and play the “law card”. This just encourages confrontation and gives the community a bad reputation. I see plenty of “street photography confrontation” videos where people pour gas on the fire instead of trying to put it out.
Antagonizing behavior may bump up the ego, but it does nothing in the form of getting people on your side. A little more empathy and understanding of what it may feel like having a stranger photograph you without consent will be far more beneficial than shutting them down.
Bring street photography into the light
Something that could also help is being more “out there.” The cliche in street photography is to have the skills to be like a ninja, going unnoticed and creating moments without the public having any awareness.
Of course, I get this and it was a large part of my workflow over the years. That said, people are super sensitive to street photographers and there will be many times even the darkest of clothing and the smallest camera won’t be enough for you to be in stealth mode
But, I say come out of the shadows and interact with the community. Let them know who you are, not just as a photographer but as a human. Ideally get to a point where people know you’re a good person, harmless and just enjoy photographing your community.
This will be harder in larger cities like Bogota, but communities exist everywhere even in the likes of London, New York et al. Become the photographer and people will be less suspicious of your actions.
Signing off
I’m not naive to think all of this is certain to work. However, I strongly believe as street photographers, we can do more to win back the trust of our communities and wider society.
I think we need to. Because if the distance between street photographers and society grows further apart, then the laws we currently have to protect us may become a thing of the past. Then, we can’t do what we do best, document our time on earth and keep a record of our experience for us and others to enjoy.
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