[benjiboy]

Originally Posted by Don Wallace

Street photography is by definition, I think, candid photography of people. I photograph "in the street" so to speak, but now only as tourist. If there are people in the photograph, they are incidental and not the subject. I simply do NOT do street photography anymore because of the generalized social paranoia over such things. I photograph a lot of children but I would NEVER take a candid photograph of a child unless it was a relative or the child of close family friends, and even then I would get the parents' permission beforehand.

In the 1970s, I used to love going to fairs and photographing people, including a lot of children, but the reaction to cameras has changed dramatically. I do understand that some people do not like to be photographed and I always tried to be sensitve to that, but these days, it is quite different. The last time I took a picture of children at a fair, someone asked me, very aggressively, why I was taking that picture. It seemed to me to be completely obvious: absolutely gleeful children on an antique merry-go-round. Isn't that a great subject? Well, he didn't think so, and they were not even his kids. The craziest example was about 10 years ago when I was photographing a lovely art deco apartment building my city. One of the residents came right across the street and was furious with me for photographing the building where she lived. She threatened to call the police. I told her to go ahead, and she backed off, but today, I would simply pack up and leave, based on what I read about encounters with the police.

I am sure that someone will write a dissertation in the near future on the source of this new paranoia but it makes absolutely no sense to me. What do people think is at risk? How does a candid street photograph threaten them or their children?

My experiences have been very similar to yours Don, and if I'm ever tempted to do any street photography again I'll make sure I use my quietest least professional looking camera, but above all my smallest, in case someone who's bigger than me, takes offence and sticks it " where the sun don't shine ! "