It’s fairly straightforward.... despite coming to admire some street photos that are stylish or the (generally Japanese) girls are cute, by and large I find them tedious, intrusive, by degree outrageous and most leave me feeling’so what’. “Ohhh you got up really close”.... so what... “ohhh you’ve got a reaction there” ... damn right, I hope you had your Fuji thrown under a bus... if there’s a story or the processing is cool , I just about get it but if it simply implies the photographer has a “condition” to address, I’m not with them.
- Graham O'Neill
EDITOR'S NOTE
We took the liberty of quoting Graham. It is a bigger issue than most of us will admit - capturing photons - it IS close to capturing life itself. Martin Sabine and Zaar Riisberg already touched on it. A lot of us feel like invading people's privacy, even when depicting street photography in a political sense. Then again, some people want to participate - often, when you are not in the mood. So, like sex, should photography be consensual? Not at all. What you do not know, does not hurt you. However, I having a hard time with doing shots depicting people in unflattering positions, or indeed fat people sleeping on the subway, is normal. Your empathy ensures that you do not like making people uncomfortable. It is not about having guts. No. It is about decency and the gut feeling - is this okay? It is about sense of place.