Blog Post #5

“I just think it's important to be direct and honest with people about why you're photographing them and what you're doing. After all, you are taking some of their soul.” ~Mary Ellen Mark


For the most part, I agree with this quote. I usually view it as sort of a favor when someone lets me use them for my photography. When you are working with someone and photographing them, you’re not only using your own time and resources, you’re borrowing from their life as well, and  I’m sure there are a million other things that people could be doing in this busy world than letting me take pictures of them and putting up with my antics. I would feel totally dishonest and guilty if I were taking someone’s picture and misleading them about what it was for and for what I was going to use it.

However, there are always exceptions to every rule. I keep thinking of a million random scenarios that could come up in which being direct and up front about what you were doing and why you were doing it wouldn’t be the best course of action. Maybe you’re working on a photography project that is set up similar to a psychology experiment, where you tell them you’re doing one thing but really you’re catching their candid response to another- telling them this would probably confuse them as well as ruin what you were doing (just be sure to let them know after). Okay maybe that’s a weird example, but you get the point. Or maybe you’re taking pictures of vehicles as they drive past- it would be almost impossible (as well as unsafe) to ask permission first. But if someone were to stop and ask me what I was doing, I sure would be honest about it.

I know in some cultures, they literally believe that when their photograph is taken, that their soul is captured and trapped, and because of this, photography is forbidden. However, I don’t think that’s what Mary Ellen Mark was getting at when she said this quote. I agree with her to an extent, capturing someone’s image and emotion in a moment is like capturing a small peek into their soul. Amazing and intimate moments can be captured with a camera, and they take on their own life and live on in their own way in the photograph that is taken.