I've been busying myself a bit with #ethics of #StreetPhotography lately, in particular concerning people being recognisably featured in them.
I usually try to avoid catching people in my shots or try to picture them in a way that they're not recognisable. On the other hand, when I took this picture here (yes I know it's not the best edit, additionally I still had the CPL mounted which could've very well ruined the whole shot), I tasted blood.
I was lucky it was such an (objectively) easy and rewarding encounter. I saw him, decided the scene's really just worth it to battle my social anxieties and ask that man if it was okay to take a picture of him. He happily agreed, just because I was one of a handful out of maybe a hundred or more who ever cared to actually ask. My adrenaline levels were through the roof and I literally was on the brink of crying after that - partly out of being proud I decided to overcome my anxieties, partly out of relief for righteously being able to leave the situation again without it being awkward, partly out of self-hate for being so fucked up I have issues with such trivial things as asking a stranger a truly simple thing, partly about the story told by that, how terrible we as a society treat homeless people that I get so much gratitude from him simply by asking permission, thus showing at least a minimal set of respect from one human being to another.

To get to the point, I came to realise ethics - at least as far as street and urban photography is concerned - aren't so much a matter of law or legality, but primarily a matter of decency and mindset. And it's something I need to sort with myself before I can go out and portray people like in that shot of mine. I have to become clear on things like where I stand in relation to my subject, if I'm an external "documenter", if I see myself as "same kin" and if that's actually true or I'm committing cultural appropriation, if it's okay to buy myself out of responsibility by giving the guy a tenner just because I can.
Those are questions no one can answer for anybody but themselves.

Unfortunately I HAVE to work out my own answers to these questions, because there's such a rich treasure of emotions buried in that box - if not in the pictures then for myself while taking them.
But no matter how good of a street portrait I might take in the future, this will always be special and probably my richest treasure because of all the emotions it triggered with me and how it forces me to define how I see myself while taking pictures.

#photography #UrbanPhotography #Fotografie #StraßenFotografie #UrbaneFotografie #SocialAnxiety

EOS 70D, Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM, CPL, f/6.3, ISO100, 1/25