A Street Photographer, Not a Criminal
I’m a keen street photographer. I find it exciting to steal a moment off an unsuspecting subject. When you don’t know you are being photographed you give me an honest representation of who you are. I’m doing you a favour by capturing an honest image.
Sadly, not everyone will agree with that last sentence and some will even furiously disagree and call you a prick. I met one such person yesterday. I was doing my thing taking pictures when a middle aged man saw me and took it upon himself to rescue my subject from an unholy act of having his picture taken.
He first asked me what I was doing and before I could answer he angrily demanded to know if I had asked permission to take the photo. I politely told him that it’s not a commercial work and that I didn’t need to ask permission. At this stage he had too much invested in the confrontation and as I walked away he ended it by shouting out ‘prick’ to me.
This isn’t by any means a really bad encounter but one that gets you thinking. Us photographers often receive strange looks and one can only imagine what they think of us as we snap away in public.
If you are a regular street photographer it might pay to research and know your rights in your local state. Here is a comprehensive resource for New South Wales photographers, an old SMH article, and a general information sheet on privacy law. It might be worth printing some of these fact sheets to give to police officers, concerned strangers and maybe use it to block the rare fist as it’s about to hit you in the face.