“Hey that dude is wearing a sick ass tee! Take a little snap of it and post it on your Instagram story!” A common phrase I usually hear from my friends when we stroll around the hypebeast streets of Mong Kok. But thinking about it more deeply, do we actually have the rights to take photos so openly and freely?
“Some photographers have been approached by the police while on the street taking photographs.” (Arts Law Centre of Australia, 2016)
In the photography world, there is certain ethics that need to be followed properly, in order to have the rights and freedom to utilize them to your personal will. Certain violations of taking photos in public can have serious consequences.
“There are criminal offences set out in state and territory statutes regarding behaviour that is a gross violation of privacy or the taking photographs and video or audio recordings result in the creation of material that offends community standards” (Arts Law Centre of Australia, 2016)
In the “victim’s” perspective, will they be aware of the usage of your photo that you have captured? In their point of view, you could be a creepy person and print that photo out and hang it on your wall to admire their beauty or other needs. I am exaggerating a little bit, but it could happen!
Let us take this photo for example.
I was in the streets of Mong Kok and saw this tattooed lady smoking a cigarette, while she uses her phone. I have been observing her for a few minutes to see what she does in this public space with her media device. She does nothing out of the ordinary and just scrolls through her social media, while taking puffs out of her cigarette.
With her face being clearly shown in the photo and using this photo for the sake of my blog: I am in violation of photography ethics.
However, that was just a hypothetical example. This is my girlfriend that I asked to take a photo of, for the sake of using this scenario for my blog. Do not need to report me to the cops guys.
There would be more violations if this was legitimately used for commercial purposes, like advertising for example. If the tee’s logo was shown, I would have to get permission from the tee company in order to use the photo, to avoid any legal action being placed on me. If I really did take a photo of this “random” person on the street and did not blur her face out, that would be another violation to the list.
In summary, street photographers should be careful of what they capture, they might know realize what they are doing is against the law. There will always be serious consequences for towards this unlawful act.
References
- Street Photographer’s Rights. (2016). Retrieved June 19, 2019, from https://www.artslaw.com.au/info-sheets/info-sheet/street-photographers-rights/
The Erryl Classicz 