What responsibility do I as a photographer hold to myself, my subjects and the world as a whole? This is a question I've asked myself as an artist on different occasions through out my life. It is a question that often arrives with the consideration of a potential photograph that I feel the need to take, despite the subject matter. Some of the best photographs I've ever taken were without my subjects permission, many of which would have been lost if I'd I'd taken the time to ask them. I find so many moments live within a fraction of a second and are then lost either compositionally or emotionally.
Today I came across a situation (see above photo) where I immediately reached for my camera and before clicking the shutter, realized that my subject, this person may in fact and probably would not want to be photographed. I took the photograph and walked away. There are photos I've taken that will never see the light of day. I took them- I needed to take them but do not feel it is my choice to share them publicly. There have been a few very rare occasions where I've burned to photograph something that I've refrained from because I felt it would by highly inappropriate or insensitive. Today was a day that I took the photograph.
I don't believe I am some world class photographer whose work needs to be seen by the masses. I'm just a person who is impassioned to photograph the world around them. I'm not looking for a justification, an argument or a reason and ultimately I don't have an answer for myself, just the question. I put this out to the world because if I'm not going to be honest, if I'm not going to speak my mind, then why am I writing this blog in the first place?