M2: Legal and Ethical Issues

As per usual, I am going to evaluate the legal and ethical issues that I need to be wary of for my photography project. The laws around photography are slightly different and there is a fine line between what is moral and immoral since this media form can be used to highlight issues or as a form of expression.

 

                                          Copyright

Photography is protected under copyright law, the photographer's photos cannot be used without their permission. This is the same for nearly all forms of media. This means if I take any photos for this project, they are mine and no one can use them without asking me. I could if I wanted to charge people a license for them to use my photos. Additionally, I could apply creative commons to my photos which means the public can use my photos as long as they follow the conditions/rules I put in place. If I made my photos royalty free, this would mean that anyone could use them without my permission however they would like to. This is a law that applies to every photo. If I don't follow copyright laws and I steal someone else's work, I can be fined or even sent to prison.

 

 

                            GDPR and Consent Forms

If you are going to use your photographs for any other use other than personal use, then you will need to follow the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) laws. Legally in the UK you are allowed to take photos of people in public spaces such as on a street. However, if they object and you take their photo against their consent, you can be sued. GDPR is important in some cases, this stops personal data being leaked or someone's privacy being breached. If someone can be identified from the photo, then this is possible GDPR infringement. Model release forms are used by photographers so they have written consent from those who may be in the photo. If the person consents, then they cannot sue the photography on any grounds, this is why its important to not just accept verbal consent since they may withdraw their statement or pretend they didn't give consent in the first place to win a lawsuit.

 

 

                          Law and Regulatory Bodies

The laws on photography are mainly implimented by the government. However, where you share your photos will change what regulatory bodies control how your photos are used/shared. IPSO (Independent Press Standards Organisation) regulates newspapers, Ofcom (Office of Communications) regulate the internet, TV etc. If you are posting your photos on social media you may also need to be aware on their individual rules of each platform. Taking photos in public is legal in the UK but in other countries around the world (Korea, Algeria) this may be banned or there may be restrictions.

 

 

     Bruce Gilden- My Thoughts on the Photographer and His Style

 

 

 

Bruce Gilden is a famous street photographer from Brooklyn, New York, America. His main camera is a 35mm Leica and he uses flash to take his photos. He took up photography in 1967 and still takes photos to this day. Gilden has worked for many famous companies such as Louis Vuitton, The Climate Group, New York Times Magazine... He has won many awards during his career and you can see some of his photography displayed in many museums across the world (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Victoria & Albert Museum in London etc).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Here you can see a few photos taken by Gilden. A majority of his photos are black and white with flash being used. The subjects are caught off guard, this is what the photographer aspires to do for his photos. He wants to take photos of interesting people and show a range of different people. As you can see in the photos above, Gilden uses medium camera shots, usually focusing on the subject's face anc clothes since they are ways we express ourselves and our individuality. Gilden enjoys taking his photos like this to simulate how busy and anxiety provoking the city is. People are focused on themselves, they walk fast and don't take in the world around them and his photography highlights this. I think his photography style is very interesting, it is great to see how diverse we are and the different fashion senses people have. You can easily imagine your eyes being the photo since his work feels so real.

Gilden doesn't have ethics, he doesn't believe that it is immoral to take photos of people without their permission.  In my opinion, I think it is unethical to take photos of people on the street without consent. Sympathy/empathy is a human emotion a lot of us have, we do not want to make anyone's day worse, you do not know what they are going through. I wouldn't like to upset someone with my photography. There are lots of people with mental health conditions such as body dysmorphia who may believe you are judging how they look or anxiety who may not be comfortable with this at all. Furthermore, you would need to be aware of those who have bad epilepsy since camera flashes can cause them problems. I also feel as if this is an invasion of someone's privacy, I personally would not like it if this happened to me since it makes you feel violated.