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  #1  
Old 6th July 2013, 07:04 PM
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Ming Rider Ming Rider is offline
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Default I'm a Street Photographer, Not a Pervert . . .

. . . This just happened to me literally an hour ago.

I was sat on a bench in Preston (UK) city centre, enjoying a well earned break from a days Street. Even when having a rest, the old Street Photographers eye is still working. Whilst munching on a Greggs Chili Beef pasty, there was an elderly couple on the bench opposite and showing that they were still very much in love with each other. I took a picture of them. Then an old man came along wearing a trilby hat, looking distinguished. I took a shot of him.

Then, what I can best describe as Vicki Pollard arrived, replete with the mandatory children. One of them began running towards the back of the bench and leaping high in the air over it, between the older people. "That would make a cool picture" I thought. He did it countless times, though each time I got ready to take the shot, he didn't jump. I made three attempts and gave up.

Five minutes went by, then they got up to leave. Next thing I know, she's shouting "you're a sick pervert for photographing my kids" and that she was going to call the police. I remained calm and assured her that I wasn't a pervert, that 'perverts' don't use 1500 quid Leica kit and that I would stay here and wait for the police to arrive. She repeated that I was a pervert and that she was going to call the police. She left with her ill-fated children, one of them giving me the finger.

I waited 10 minutes while I drank my tea but no police arrived.

I feel physically sick and am left with this thought that what I love doing is now (somehow) dirty.

The uneducated and misinformed 'masses', via the gutter media such as 'The Sun', 'The Mirror' and ITV News, are destroying the oldest and most honourable form of photography in existence.

I'm writing this on the train as I make my way home. This is the first time in 10+ years of Street that I have experienced this. I feel sick to the core, am struggling to tell myself that I should take the rough with the smooth and that tomorrow is another day.
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Old 6th July 2013, 07:11 PM
Tony Marlow Tony Marlow is offline
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All this fills me with great sadness and despair. I have felt for sometime that we are heading down the road to Mao's China, Stalin's USSR and the Stasi regime in old East Germany. I can't see any sign or hope that this trend will ever be halted let alone reversed.

Tony
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Old 6th July 2013, 07:20 PM
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Originally Posted by Tony Marlow View Post
All this fills me with great sadness and despair. I have felt for sometime that we are heading down the road to Mao's China, Stalin's USSR and the Stasi regime in old East Germany. I can't see any sign or hope that this trend will ever be halted let alone reversed.

Tony
I completely share your worries. It brings a tear to my eye sometimes, thinking of a time when we won't be able to do photography in public, at all.
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Old 6th July 2013, 08:25 PM
DavidH DavidH is offline
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A few years back my local paper reported a case of what seemed like some paranoic publicity seeking woman unjustly accusing a man who subsequently proved to have done nothing wrong. What made things worse in this case, if the newspaper was even half right in its reporting, was the disgraceful behaviour of the police officer involved. An old man suffered the distress and indignity of having his house searched simply because he enjoyed taking photographs in a public park to which he had as much right of access as anyone else.
Why it didn't occur to the police that if the man had wished to take photographs of children for nefarious purposes he could have used equipment that was easy to conceal instead of conspicuous, decades-old equipment was never explained. Also, why the woman who was the cause of such unpleasantness was never called to account for her conduct was never explained. Far too many people want rights without responsibility.
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Old 6th July 2013, 10:12 PM
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Originally Posted by Ming Rider View Post
The uneducated and misinformed 'masses', via the gutter media such as 'The Sun', 'The Mirror' and ITV News, are destroying the oldest and most honourable form of photography in existence.
The hypocrisy of the media never ceases to amaze me. There's an article on the hot weather on one of the online tabloids today which features plenty of images of people including children. So it's OK for the press photographers to take pictures of everyone as well as kids, but anybody else is deemed a pervert. Very sad.
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Old 6th July 2013, 10:13 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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My sympathies. These days we risk this reaction every time we take a "street" photograph unfortunately. All you can do is to continue to act as you did on this occasion and hope that it was an isolated incident.


Mike
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Old 6th July 2013, 11:45 PM
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It seems strange to me that someone who describes themselves as a street photographer would not be aware of the risks they run by taking photographs of children without their parents consent. Surely you could have asked the parents permission before you started shooting.

You also imply that perverts are not rich, yet the BBC had a very famous DJ in their ranks who could afford to spend a lot more than 1500 quid on camera gear if he had wanted to.

Somehow I think some of the blame for this incident must lie with yourself. I'm sure you will get over it and carry on with your street photography but perhaps with with more awareness.

Good luck with your photography in the future.
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Old 7th July 2013, 02:04 AM
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Originally Posted by vincent View Post
It seems strange to me that someone who describes themselves as a street photographer would not be aware of the risks they run by taking photographs of children without their parents consent. Surely you could have asked the parents permission before you started shooting.

You also imply that perverts are not rich, yet the BBC had a very famous DJ in their ranks who could afford to spend a lot more than 1500 quid on camera gear if he had wanted to.
Good points Vincent.

As a rule, I don't photograph kids for these very reasons. On this occasion however, I saw the 'picture' and acted on instinct, without thinking. If I had asked permission, it would have become a staged shot, a different photograph.

The fact it was a child was irrelevant to the shot. What he was doing was the key. For all intents, it could have been an adult jumping, or a little green man from Mars.

I mentioned the value and name of the camera as I (wrongly) believed the person I was talking to was aware of culture, the arts in general and of the larger world around her, not someone with a 'Big Brother/Pop Idol/Britains Got Talent' mindset.

For sure, many perverts are wealthy. Just look at the House of Lords or the Catholic Church. However, they would be more likely to use a DSLR with long lens or a discreet P&S or cellphone, enabling them to 'enjoy' the fruits of their labours more quickly (and share them with their perverted friends on the web).

The fact that I choose to use an outdated 40 year old camera, with even more outdated 60 year old lenses and a further outdated medium, should have got her thinking that here's someone who is obviously a keen photographer.

I can't imagine there's many perverts around the world for instance photographing youngsters with an 8x10 view camera?
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Last edited by Ming Rider; 7th July 2013 at 02:17 AM.
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Old 7th July 2013, 07:19 AM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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These days, especialy with the publicity given to recent child abuse cases, you need to be very careful when photographing children,parents at the moment are more proctecive than ever, and who can blame them, I would never, ever, under any circumstances, take a photograph of any child without getting the parents permission, although where I live I don't get problems with street photography, and indeed, in the past have included children in my pictures, these days I simply would not take the chance, I don't blame the parents, and if I was a parent of a young child I might be the same, sadly, the times they are a changing, and we as photographers have to change with them.
Richard
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Old 7th July 2013, 08:23 AM
big paul big paul is offline
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I remember watching don McCullin on tv, he was walking around Whitechapel taking photos of tramps, if I remember he was asking there permission to take there photo, he got some great pictures without any confrontation, I know that its not the same but how things are going in this country ????????




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