Permission in street photography: A balanced view

Permission in street photography is a hot topic. In this article I will offer a balanced view and more importantly an answer to if you should or shouldn’t ask for permission.

I’ve been a street photographer (see guide here) for about a decade and I did both, here are some things to think about, but first and foremost, a note about legality. I am not a lawyer and this is NOT legal advice.

Rules & Laws

The first thing you need to know about permission in street photography is that rules and laws vary from country to country. For a large part in the United States, as long as you are in a public area, you are within your rights.

For example in NYC, A photographer made a shot of a Jewish man, said Jewish man saw his portrait advertised in a gallery and promptly sued. The court eventually sided with DiCorcia (the photographer) citing “artistic expression“.

What is interesting here is that  New York law prohibits the use of a person’s likeness, without consent, “for advertising or for purposes of trade.” So potentially if the photographer used his likeness on a billboard that would have been a different story. But since it was essentially for the purposes of art (and this is what street photography is for the most part)

But, this is for the most part the United States, and there are also regional laws to abide to. Other countries have other laws. If you see shows in Korea a lot of the background is blurred because of the right to the face.

In France the rules and laws are muddied with one case siding with the photographer and another the subject. As a photographer you are creating a record and sometimes someone might NOT want there to be such record.

One day in New York I was shooting a street scene, mostly focused on a building in the background when a guy came up to me slightly on the brash side asking what I was doing. He was selling fakes on the streets.

Permission in street photography: Yes or No?

Why shoot with permission?

Now if you are 100% within your rights, there are a few reasons why you want to ask for permission in street photography. The first is, if you are a bit apprehensive about shooting strangers. If you a re a beginner the idea of shooting strangers is as appealing to you as a nice warm bath to a cat.

So asking permission is a good way to ease yourself into shooting street photography. By the way If that is you I have a powerful script that you can used in my short book Street Photograpy Blitz. After asking enough time you’ll probably find out that most people are pretty open to the idea of being photographed.

The case for NOT asking

Why shoot without permission in street photography? When you ask someone first they aren’t real, they will present a façade to the camera.

Ask any kid in your family and you can see they strike their cool pose or say cheese before you make the photo. There is a way around this (see Blitz) but when you simply shoot in the streets without first asking, people are raw and real.

When you ask for permission, people are very aware they are being photographed and will put their guards up. Moreover most street photographers want reality, and they do not want posed.

Why? Because it is a different feeling you get when you shoot a nice portrait that you can ask the person to red over and over vs a candid photograph. Street photography is the intersection of chance and skill. If you ask for permission it just ain’t the same thing.

Did they or didn’t they?

There now is also another way you can do things, where you DO ask for permission in street photography but then you shoot you make it seem like a CANDID. Boy does that open a can of worms.

On one hand, how you arrived at a photograph shouldn’t really be an issue at all. Do you care that Da Vinci used a certain paintbrush or another? Not at all.

But on the other hand, when people EXPECT candid and it is revealed some part that is ARTIFICIAL, it kind of muddies the water and the effect is not the same. People love street photography because is is primarily about unscripted life.

If it was somehow revealed that a photograph has been posed, it takes away from the image even if you tell yourself not to.

Take Steve McCurry. He has this image of a train in India, what a great image. The Taj Mahal, the turbans, it’s nothing short of perfection.

Now, let’s forget that this is supposed to be documentary photography. Imagine this is one of those photographers you can find in Inspired Eye Street Photography Magazine and it is personal work. Look at it below:

Great huh? How about this frame on the left?

Both are amazing photographs. It technically should NOT take away from the greatness of the image if I revealed to you that both have been staged.

According to Satish Sharma, an Indian photographer present:

“This famous cover picture of his National Geographic  story on the Railways was  a special case that I remember. He actually had to reshoot it and got the railways to take the engine back again, because the first shoot was not sharp enough”.

Same thing for the second shot “This apparently off the cuff moment was arranged too. The lady is the wife of a photographer friend and the suitcases the coolie (porter) is carrying are empty.

They had to be because the shot took time and lots of patient posing. McCurry’s pictures have been called STAGED CANDID MOMENTS by  Avinash Pasricha , a photographer friend who knows how he works because he  helped  him with  the pictures like the one above. The lady is his sister in law. “

Like I said, forget that this is supposed to be documentary, and see it as street photography. There’s just a cloud of disappointment that you just can’t get rid of because now you know there was some manual interference.

This is the same thing you have for the Kiss photograph from Robert Doisneau who featured actor friends.

This is unscripted but still somewhat staged. And ironically one of the reasons why he didn’t really like to shoot strangers is the liability it could cause him.

Closer to home in our modern age there’s some street photographers that have nice shots, only to be revealed that they had a mini photoshoot in order to get those.

While the making of a street photographs shouldn’t have bearing on it’s worth, in reality it’s impossible to get rid of.

Why? Because people WANT and EXPECT street photography to be unscripted. It doesn’t even matter if you didn’t even claim for anything to be candid, that’s just how things are.

That is another reason why if you are within your rights that it’s better not to ask permission in street photography. Most people can pick up if a photo has been posed or not, but if you simulate candids while it was posed, it takes away from the photograph.

Respect & permission

When I was a kid, at the airport going to the States I was sitting behind a man with a DSLR. A kid was in the airport and he shot a frame. A woman I guess was his mother saw that and immediately got upset and screamed in broken English “NEVER DO THAT IN YOUR LIFE!!!”. Argument ensued, the photographer deleted the image before the lady even asked.

Was the photographer in his rights? Nopes. PRIVATE property. But even if he was, just because you are capable of doing something doesn’t mean you should. I never ask for permission when shooting street photographer, but I also try to be extremely respectful.

A portrait of someone’s kid even in public place? Not for me. I won’t shove a flash down anyone’s throat either. I am all for respect based street photography and I am fine as long as others show me the same courtesy. A few years ago I was at the airport in Bangkok, my kids were running around and I shot a photograph. A few minutes later a woman came in front of me crouched down and took pretty much the same shot.

It wasn’t a portrait of the kids, just their outline overlooking the airport. She’s technically not allowed to do this, my wife turned to me and she asked if we should say something. I turned facing her and said “It’s fair game”.

Conclusion

Permission in street photography is first and foremost a matter of your local laws. If you are on the right side of the law, beginners will probably be better if they ask first in order to ease themselves into shooting strangers.

Afterwards shooting without permission is better because people are more real and do not have time to put their shields up. Plus since most people expect street photography to be real and candid, if you simulate candid while it is posed, it really takes away from your photograph even if the “how” of the image shouldn’t have any bearing of it’s worth.

If you are interested in street photography, I reveal everything I know here.