Progression towards Project Brief 3 – Taking photos in public

In today’s class, we further discussed around topic – ethics and street photography, is there an ‘ethical’ way to shoot in the public. To me, I really agree with the third reading – Eric Kim’s opinion. Think about when you were being taken by someone you don’t know without asking for your permission if you don’t feel comfortable when they shoot you then don’t photograph the others. For myself, I like having my photograph taken — with or without permission. I feel comfortable in my own skin. And I find it hilarious when others photograph me (either candidly) or when they approach me. As I think street photography is all about the sense of nature and candid. In this way, people’s features and characteristic were being highlighted.

I was paired up with Steff, another thing that I found interesting was the interaction and collaboration in between partners, Steff and I have a very different characteristic which she feels more comfortable talking to the strangers because no matter what you say to them you couldn’t meet the strangers again. Where I feel difficult when I talk to the strangers especially not in my 1st language.

During the progress towards our 32 portraits, we found some interesting facts: First is shooting with kids, parents are always being very vigilant they don’t want anyone to use their children’s photo without letting them know. Secondly, even though myself is from one of the Asian countries but I believe that most of the Asian people are very shy and vigilant when they are being photographed. This could either because they are very new to this environment so they are being specifically sensitive or they cannot really understand but they don’t want to ask too much.