From: Carl Weese (cweese@earthlink.net)
Date: 09/21/02-12:16:23 PM Z
Lots of things can influence our comfort zone when making photographs. As
Tillman has indicates, possessions like people's houses can be as delicate
an issue as pictures of people themselves. Sometimes possessions can form a
more revealing portrait than faces.
Back in the dark ages when I was a teenager I worked hard for a time to be
able to frame and focus accurately without raising the camera, in order to
work surreptitiously. Problem was, by the time I'd perfected the skill, I
realized I wasn't comfortable with it, so never actually used it.
Last October I did a series of pictures of the new post-9/11 phenomenon of
profuse flag displays sitting cheek by jowl with Halloween decorations.
(some can be seen here: http://home.earthlink.net/~cweese/fp1.html)
This involved photographing people's homes, right up close. I didn't make a
practice of banging on the door to ask permission, but I did work in an
extremely open, obvious manner with an 8x10 inch view camera. Some people
asked what I was doing and all of them were perfectly happy with my
explanation that I was making pictures of the juxtapositions of patriotic
displays and Halloween. I think I would have encountered a lot more
resistance or suspicion if I'd been more surreptitiously shooting with a
small camera.---Carl
--
web site with picture galleries
and workshop information at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cweese/
----------
>From: Tillman Crane <tillman@tillmancrane.com>
>To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
>Subject: Re: Ethical issues - hit "delete" key if they bother you
>Date: Sat, Sep 21, 2002, 9:06 AM
>
>
> Marcos,
> I am not a street photographer. I was a photojournalist for a decade
> and worked in "news" situations. I stopped being a photojournalist
> for many reasons but being uncomfortable photographing those in
> distress was chief among them.
>
> Working with large cameras I can't hide. Even when the " legal" right
> to make images of people homes from the street is mine, I don't do
> it. I have to be comfortable where I am working and I have to have
> permission to work where I am. That's just me.
>
> I have been working on a project for a non profit for over a year and
> photographing peoples homes was part of it. When I had permission I
> made some good images. When I didn't I felt like a thief. Finally I
> put the 5x7 away and used a Hassleblad to "get more images" as I was
> asked. But it still felt like a drive by shooting.
>
> We all have to work with in our own comfort zone. Mine is to get
> permission if at all possible.
> It sounds like we came to similar conclusions.
> tillman crane
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