I was reading this article on BBC the other day.
The article starts with a quote from Serena Miller. It goes like this
"For a number of years I was relentlessly pursued by 10 to 15 men, almost daily... Spat at, verbally abused... I would often find myself, at the age of 21, at midnight, running down a dark street on my own with 10 men chasing me. And the fact they had cameras in their hands made that legal."
Sometime ago I posted on the OCA forum about photographer's right in UK. This article in BBC, comes from totally opposite direction, about things that a photographer should not do. While I do think making a living as a professional photographer is hard, I don't see why these people can sleep well by constructing a situation to make some famous people into distress, then trying to sell photographs based on a constructed story.
We talked about shooting techniques in the OCA class but there is next to nothing about ethic. It is fair to say that the degree does not prepare us to be journalist, but everything we do as a photographer affects the right we are going to have, and affects how society is going to see us. I enjoy my right to do street photography and even photograph random people, knowing that even if I happen to capture a children on my shot, it is still legal (as long as it is not indecent image). I don't like to have to walk around on the pitch as make sure everybody is above 18 before shooting a football game, or wedding, etc. If we do enjoy these freedom, we should also ask what is unethical even at a small scale that we won't cross that line.
I posted another discussion about free photographs on the OCA forum sometime ago. I had been accused by pro and semi-pro that by not taking money from the event I shoot, I am distorying their livelihood. My problem was, some of these events are participated by my friends, teammate, what is the logic for me to charge my friend just to make those what so called pro stay in business? Not to mention that most of the events I get access to are dominated by student. Do I expect they have a lot of money to pay for photographs after a £9000/year tution? Of course, this problem has come back to me again. Not because I seriously want to protect somebody who doesn't have enough skill to beat an amateur, but I worry about the ethic on my action. Just because giving out photograph suits me, it might not be ethical to destory the industry and left all the newly graduated photography student have no chance to get job. Say, I will be graduated with a degree in Photography one day (some day).
Probably most of the student in OCA will not end up to be a photojounalist. However, most of us will take photograph of people, take photograph on the street, take photograph on events. There is something for us to think of.
No comments:
Post a Comment