The Ethics of Street Photography

My Conflicting Opinions

I am not a street photographer by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I’m quite a coward when it comes to street photography. The idea of pointing my camera at someone on a random street and having them catch me in the act gives me more anxiety than a final exam for organic chemistry. Give me a controlled setting any and every day. But when I’m pouring through the works of Cartier-Bresson, Sally Mann, and Diane Arbus, I want so badly for my photography to stack up against theirs. So I grab my trusty Pentax ME Super, a roll of black and white film (for some reason, street photography just looks more beautiful on black and white), and I head out to the streets of London expecting to take mind-blowingly honest photos that share the world the way the great street photography pioneers did back in the ‘60s. And once I get out there, anxiety kicks in, and I end up with a lot of shots of buildings and groups from afar and the backs of people’s heads. The alternate ending to this is taking my trusty Pentax, going out, and not actually shooting at all but spending the entire walk feeling self-conscious about having a camera around my neck. This is especially true at school pick-up, in which case I try to tuck the camera into my coat pocket, having left my purse at home. You can see how that may not work, so by the time I get my daughter from the school courtyard, I’m just carrying the camera by my side in one hand, strap wrapped around my wrist, pretending like I don’t have it so the parents don’t think I’m trying to take pictures of their kids. This alternate ending is awkward and makes me embarrassed just to think of it. I don’t recommend this feeling.

While I will admit to having a strong distaste for the discomfort street photography brings me, I continue to try. Why? Because there is a beauty in the candid. There is something so breathtaking about an unfiltered view of the world. Don’t think I’m naive. I understand that every style of art, every photographer is inherently biased. We are seeing the world through their perspective when we look at their photographs. But there is honesty as well. The photos are un-posed, un-curated. They are a glance, a glimmer of what life was like during the photographer’s lifetime. From these photographs, we can get a glimpse of the joys of childhood or the atrocities of war. We can see families devastated by the Great Depression, feel the frustration of protestors during the Vietnam War, see the glory of Detroit in its prime.

Right now, Street Photography is under fire. I’ve seen the comments, the arguments, the tensions over it on social media. It’s being called “unethical”. Why?

Girl Reading Book on Skateboard, Hyde Park, London, Summer 2023