Ethics in street photography
I am a photographer. And because that is a very broad profession, we try to make the boxes smaller. Someone is a landscape photographer, an interior photographer or a portrait photographer. My label is ‘street photographer’ (and for the other half, of course, portrait photographer). As a street photographer you record daily life; all the unforced and unposed moments between the standard photo occasions such as birthdays, weddings and births.
Want to know what street photography actually is first? I explain that on what is street photography?, including a bit about the history of the genre.
There is a lot of confusion about what you may and may not do as a photographer in the street. If you want to talk about that further, I invite you to send me a DM on Instagram, or to come to a workshop or a talk; the subject comes up without exception. It touches on too many points to deal with briefly here. Portrait rights, publication, journalistic or artistic freedom and the location, to name a few. And above all a great deal of common sense and an awareness of your own ethics, which play a part in it.
What I mainly want to talk about now is those ethics. Ethics is, according to the dictionary, the “body of moral principles”. That same dictionary teaches that ‘moral’ in turn means “founded on the inner sense of right and wrong”. Ethics is like an onion you slowly peel. But when you talk about your ethics within street photography, you are really talking about your personal judgement of whether a photo may or may not be made. It is not legislation. So things like your personal frame of reference, how you grew up, your social circle and the social media tunnel you find yourself in all influence that judgement. And it is therefore different for everyone.
A year ago my moral and ethical position was, for instance, not to photograph children, homeless people or people putting food into their mouths. That last one I still stand behind. It simply never makes a good photo. Children I do now photograph as a street photographer, if I see a story in it. Children make the street scene within which we adults are these days only ever in transit.
I photograph with respect (a personal value), within my own ethics (a personal value) and in a way I find fitting or beautiful (a personal value). There are no laws giving a child in public space rights different from an adult’s, but I do not even find that regulation particularly important here. I have my own rules, almost intuitive, and I confine them further to what fits my own values, my own ethics.
The awkward thing about this way of photographing is that as a street photographer you sometimes find yourself on thin ice. It is all made so personal. Most street photographers like to go out alone, because street photography is also about being mindful in the busiest places. But unless, like Vivian Maier, you leave your photos in the roll and they are only printed after your death, after your street photography session you move in a world of like-minded people.
Almost everyone seeks confirmation from others that a session went well. By publishing on Instagram or Facebook you release your photos and your ethical values onto a community that is inclusive, opinionated and sometimes remarkably blunt. It consists of individuals who air their opinions and use their own ethical framework as the measure. Who collectively set the bar, and the unwritten law.
In some cases your most important critics are hungry lions, ready to put your photos through the wringer and cut you down, drawing on what they consider the truth. The law of whoever shouts loudest and is not contradicted. It is just like the corporate world.
I do not find that unpleasant. The manner, yes; the measure, no. The truth always lies in the middle, between the loudest shouters and the quietest forces. The average ethics of the street photographer can be worked out, and settled for yourself, as long as you are open to other people’s opinions. And there ethics in street photography touches on another kind of ethics. On human ethics. On the moral principles of the larger group. Of people you hold in high regard and types you could not care less about.
By putting yourself in other people’s shoes and throwing everything into a kind of ethical blender, it becomes clear quite quickly, to my mind, what is and is not possible. I want to add the word ‘respect’ here as well. That is not just a word either. Respect in street photography is about respect for the city (clear up your mess), respect for your subject (the person photographed), and respect for your fellow street photographers who show you their work and criticise yours. You learn so much by listening to others.
And of course, if you all ‘work’ within the same branch of the sport, your picture becomes a little distorted by itself. So I like showing my photos to people who are not street photographers. I watch their expressions and listen to their opinions. And I am not saying at all that I do everything right; I do not believe that. I could not even. I take too many photos for that. But within my own ethics, my own rules and with respect for everything around me, I believe I am doing reasonably well.
What are your rules? Something to think about.
This article first appeared in Focus Magazine (the best photography magazine in the Netherlands), for which I wrote a column in every issue in 2023 and 2024.