Oh my, where to start, where to start? Perhaps I will attack the middle of the banana, as this eliminates eating it from the wrong end and getting indigestion... :eek:
Public spaces are just that--public spaces. As an academically trained (beyond my own native intelligence) sociologist, I am a firm subscriber to the observational lens provided by Ervin Goffman, and elucidated ever so clearly in "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life." This is just one more take on the dramaturgical approach to human being--and how we define and compartmentalize certain sets of behaviors and dress according to the venue we are appearing in. Thus there is the private (or backstage) and various public (frontstage). Goffman differs in that he sees the backstage as a preperatory place to emerge from--and the frontstage as a place that requires an audience operating under certain constructed rules.
In this, some situations are not fluid--but forced by condition or immaturity. Therefore, those that are homeless, mentally ill, handicapped (whoops, I fell off the PC bandwagon with that term), senile, or immature in discernment (children, mentally retarded [damn, did it again]), chemically incapacitated, etcetera--are operating in a sphere outside of what may be ethical to make a practice of photographing. This certainly WAS NOT the practice of HCB, nor even WeeGee. BTW, being dead is a completely different matter that may be photographed freely, if that is your bag. Here, we just have a discarded costume. Consult Arthur on this. You may use a Ouija board for that purpose ... :confused: {yeah I know, really bad pun.}
Now I am going to move toward both ends of the banana at once. Seeing as I have a pretty big mouth, that is easier than it sounds. Let's cut to the chase. If we are doing street photography--or even structured work ala Arbus--we are all voyuers. But Sandy is right. You walk onto the stage where I am at, or others--I may take the opportunity to immortalize that appearance by crystallizing it in two digital dimensions. What I do with that image later is a whole 'nother conversation. You may be a Queen or a King in the great drag show of life--but this cat LEGALLY RECOGNIZES my right to observe and document what I have seen in any venue that is not private or bound by rules of decorum and behavior. Try hanging around an AA meeting to capture some character studies, and get back to me on how that worked out for you... :oops:
All sorts of people have been marginalized, disenfranchised, stigmatized, beaten, slaughtered, and generally shat all over. I have been in a couple of those populations so I know the feeling all too well. I suspect that none here know the cognitive dissonance of living as a child in the 1960s and being confronted with the dilemma of water fountains labelled "Colored" and "White Only" and being neither and both. There is no such thing as equality--never has been and never will be. That is the purview of philosophers, social reformers, ax grinders, sociologists, anthropologists--and a whole library full of monotonous monographs. Let's skip that, and simply acknowledge that things are changing for some, and old white folks of the conservative and evangelical bent do not like any of it. Time to cheer for the underdog, and send Beauregard and his shiny bible belted clan back to Dixie. :cool:
That said, we are nearing the ends of the banana. Where were we, and whatinhell has this to do with street photography? Oh yeah, objectification--sorry had a senior moment there. If I dress you up like your little sister, or take her out in a public venue naked (we are talking over 18 here) to create some of that humiliation p*rn that is ever so popular in the former Soviet Republics--then we have a winner for the title. The act is deliberate, staged, and tuned for a receptive, albeit twisted audience. But what we are encountering by and large in the public fora is everyday life--and the manifestation thereof. You did not stage it--and it is fair game. If one does not like the idea of random recidivists looking on and making mental judgement calls (c'mon, don't lie to yourself--we all do it to everyone we see or meet)--then DO NOT GO OUT IN PUBLIC.
The final bite of the banana. As photographers making a survey of the great stage of public life--we are not marginalizing, disenfranchising, or abusing anyone in any way--unless that is what we have set out to do with a clear agenda in hand. To believe differently (IMHO) is disingenuous at best--and to believe as the the subject of such recordation such is true is grinding the wrong end of the ax--and disingenuous.
Oh, and be careful not to slip on that banana peel over there... ;)
Edited by PapaTango
