Getting Made

Getting Made is that magic moment when you discover that despite your best efforts to maintain your cover as you photograph in the street, the people in your frame know exactly what you’re doing. Typically, that magic moment doesn’t happen until post-processing when you’re taking a close look at your images and you see how the eyes stare directly at your camera. They made you. The image no longer qualifies as a candid shot. It has been “tainted” by a self-conscious gaze.

The curious thing is that nobody cares. When you read posts by street photographers, it seems universally the case that they approach their craft, at least in the beginning, with a heightened sense of anxiety. What if someone catches me taking their picture? Will they get angry? Will they think I’m a pervert? Will they beat me up? Experience quickly demonstrates that this anxiety is unfounded.

1. Most people who stare at your camera are thinking: Oh look, there’s someone with a camera. It doesn’t necessarily occur to them that you’re actually using it, especially if you’re not looking through the viewfinder when they see you.

2. Even if the person thinks “Oh look, there’s someone with a camera and he’s actually using it” they rarely think you’re a pervert because that would mean they were somehow participating in the perversion (e.g. flashing you as you take the picture). They know they’re not doing anything perverted, so the photo must be okay.

3. People are generally flattered that you find them interesting enough to photograph. What’s more, in the self-absorbed social media culture that marks our times, playing to the lens is the norm.

4. Even when people don’t want to be in your photo, so what? If they don’t like it, they can turn their faces the other way. The fact is: in a public space, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. In the street, the law favours the camera.

(Afterword: I don’t want to come off as too cavalier about #4. I don’t think a photographer has an absolute entitlement in public spaces. Sometimes ethical considerations about the exploitation of vulnerable persons and respect for personal dignity have to trump. I’m also cognizant of the fact that as a white middle-aged male I can, like Rob Ford, pretty much do anything I want without consequences.)