Ethics in street photography

Being an ethical street photographer can be a minefield. Peter Dench sources some essential guidelines from experts facing everyday conundrums

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If every photographer throughout history abided by a strict ethical code of conduct, we would be unlikely to have some of the world’s greatest photographs from street photography masters. As citizens we are increasingly being surveyed, recorded and documented. Everybody has a camera for posting pictures of themselves on social media and yet the desire to protect privacy is higher than ever.

It is a street photographer’s duty to elevate the world into something aesthetic, to deliver a narrative that presents the world in an interesting way – but is there an ethical way that doesn’t compromise those being photographed and put the genre in jeopardy?

Is it ever okay to photograph children, the vulnerable and homeless?

Polly Rusyn: ‘Children are the best subjects for street photography. They’re awesome, animated, doing something, uninhibited. If we stop photographing children then people in a hundred years’ time, if this planet is still here, will look back and their only reference of kids is in Tik Tok videos with bunny rabbit filters. You look back at the classic photos of Vivian Maier and Henri CartierBresson, kids, kids, kids, everywhere and it’s just wonderful to see what play looked like. I feel it’s an injustice to the future to not photograph children.’

Danny Jackson: ’You can name all the greats and there’s pictures of children because you’re photographing humanity and what’s humanity without children.’