German Street Photography?

[h.v.]

Thanks David! I've seen Jürgen Bürgen's work before, very nice, though it'd be nice if I could see more. Unfortunately no books, just a few prints. Seconds2Real looks real interesting, having only looked through it a bit so far, as does Christian Reister (who's also on Seconds2Real). Neat that Christian has a book, Alex, but 31 euros for shipping and who knows how much in duties? Yikes! Is that last link yours? If so, you've got some nice stuff, kudos to you.

[janericeuler]

Stephan Vanfleteren (Belgium) - such a good yet not widely known photographer

[janericeuler]

oh and check out Boogie (serbia) at artcoup dot com
he has done a lot of good work, also in europa and has a few nice book publications!

[marciofs]

August Sander!?

He was a portrait photographers but manynof his portraits was shot from preople on the streets.

[AgX]

Julhu: Tell that to Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, etc. Street photography is not commercial photography, therefore the subjects can be published without permission as long as the purpose of it is art, even if you can gain financially from it. Just the same as taking a picture of a building or a bird. Do you need to go up to either and ask? Nope. Same thing. Or is Germany archaic like Quebec in this regard? That isn't something I'd expect from Germany.

You got a misconception of the legal situation in Germany. It is of NO interest wether the photographer earns any money with those photos or not, not even of interest whether the photographer intends to earn money or not. Actually it is of no interest at all what the purpose of publishing is.

There are exceptions to this rule, but basically it is not advisable to publish photographs of people on street without a a good evaluation of the situation or a consent. I myself was threatened with a legal case.

That there are still a lot of such photos around can be explained by people not bothered or just not knowing about those photos or their legal position. Or they are detered by the costs a legal case may bring up.

[kintatsu]

It is of NO interest wether the photographer earns any money with those photos or not, not even of interest whether the photographer intends to earn money or not. Actually it is of no interest at all what the purpose of publishing is.

That sums it up. From what I understand, here in Germany the privacy laws are the prevailing factor. I shoot on the street, and have been asked to delete photos that someone was in when it was digital. When it was film, I was told not to do it again. I was told by a Polizei that taking their photos on duty could be a crime, unless they consented prior. I didn't argue with him, he had 3 other officers with him, and a carload more pulled up less than a minute later.

[mhofmeist]

That sucks that there are such harsh street photography laws in Germany,

Maybe it sucks when you are the photographer, but see it from the other side, too. People here feel molested by being photographed without their consent. They do not want to be forced to behave every moment as if they were under scrutiny, but be unselfconscious, without fearing that any embarrassing situation is shown to all the world. Not everything that happens in public is meant to be published.
Attitudes towards privacy and such vary from country to country (and even among different parts of society within a country), there is no universal "right" or "wrong" in these matters. IMHO it is rather rude to judge other people's traditions or attitudes, nobody can claim to have the only "right" one.