(This blog post first appeared on March 18, 2012)

When photographing people that I meet on the streets and in other public places I confess to a certain unease. When does photographing people from within the well established traditions of the genres encompassing street photography, environmental portraiture, social documentation, and, for that matter, editorial, cross over to voyeurism? This is and has been a genuine concern of mine. I have resolved this conflict, for the moment at least, with a personal understanding that, so long as the dignity of the subjects of the photographs is respected, and the photograph is somehow compelling and evokes human emotion, there is value in the sharing.

Often it is not possible for me to capture a candid image. The subjects will notice that they are being framed into a photograph and react. In these situations I will, through word or gesture, request their permission to take the photograph. Whenever this happens the image that I wanted to capture initially is lost forever. This is often unfortunate, but, it is not always a bad thing. The resulting photograph is typically closer to an environmental portrait than a street photograph. Nevertheless, it can still be compelling in evoking human emotion. Whether candid or not, I am comfortable with sharing the photograph so long as the dignity of the subject feels to me as if it is being respected. I do admit to having some photographs that, given this requirement, I have no intention of sharing.

A Warm Smile (click on the photograph title and then click on the plus sign in the upper right corner for a large view of the photograph) is not candid in that it is apparent that the subject is aware the he is being photographed. This photograph is from a project that involved photographing the food trucks and trailers that inhabit parking spaces in downtown Portland, Oregon. I may occasionally be wrong about this, but I like to think that, so long as I am respecting the dignity of the subjects that I am photographing in the public places, most of them will react like this subject … warmly! There have been some exceptions, but, in general, this line of thinking has served me well.

What do you think? Where do you stand on the concept of photographing people in public places?