Reading Response #4

In her writing, Lisa Henderson refers to the two sets of contingencies (regarding consent within public photography. She defines the first as features of social interactions between a photographers subjects, and the second as organizational constraints on doing photographic work. Public photographers are bound to run into conflict at one point or another, due to the face that the subjects are completely unknown to the photographer. It is important for us, as photographers to think about this as we photograph public places and subjects. 

In public photography, how can we really ask for consent from every subject? And what is that subject consenting to? For example, if a photographer wanted to take pictures of a busy street in Manhattan, how would they be able to ask for consent from every office building, every person walking down the street, every car driving on the road, and every other potential subject to be photographed... The importance of consent is becoming more and more present within public photographs and we have to remember the threats to privacy when photographing in public places. 

Moving on, Lisa continues to dig into the idea of 'normal appearances'... these do not denote a specific set of moves or behaviors, but rather the quality of the environment sustained by a variety of behaviors depending on the type and setting of the interactions. Essentially, this means that we can't really consider anything as a "normal appearance", we need to look instead at the quality of the surroundings and the variety of behaviors within those surroundings. Setting and subjects are the main role in public photography and their appearances can affect the way viewers see our photographs significantly. 

Relating back to consent, when photographing in public spaces it is extremely important to gain consent to our setting. Marching into a building or property because it seems effective to your portfolio may cause more tension within the community you are photographing in. Lastly, our subjects may want to give consent, so just ask!

In conclusion, it is important for photographers to gain consent from their subjects. This gives the subjects the right to deny and keeps the photographers ethics in line.

How can we ensure consent from both our subjects and our settings?

Do we need to gain consent to photograph people's houses, cars, etc?