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Ha.......... Yellow.....Yellow..... aghhhhhh..........Peter has set me off again-!!....... more New York Taxi's.......... here is a driver taking us through the village in Manhattan NYC-!!
cheers Jez XX
In reply to a specific email from a friend in Europe that asks about shooting this taxi driver in the mirror Image and other issues of press and other freedoms:
Hey Karl,
I never ask anyone if I can help it...... the taxi driver.....I did not ask him.....I assume he will not object....... sometimes people do then I stop..... mostly people do not if you smile....... he saw me but I think he was not clear that he was in the picture ........ anyway he did not ask or object........ legally I do not need his permission, accept to use his face in an advertisement ....... I do not bother to get model release permission...... this would make my pictures much more valuable cos they could be used more in advertising...... but I like the freedom from bits of paper and permission. I do not regard any filming or video as an abuse of my rights or anyone else's...... I never object to having my photo taken by anyone and almost as a matter of principal I do not ask why they want it........ I am not a bank robber or mugger....... I fear nothing from CC-TV......... I am not doing anything......... therefore....... I never even worry about that..... or regard it as an infringement of my freedoms.
I like images made without permission...... aware portraits are not really part of the purist reportage I most like ........ although of course I do shoot them...... reportage is my thing....... Princess Diana and all these film/pop stars have created an atmosphere that paints all photography as abuse..... they have made this thinking endemic in western culture....... I simply don't subscribe to that at all ...... it just is not....... people should not need to seek permission to make photographs. If I am asked i will explain nicely....... but then i no longer want the picture normally because the thing I wanted is gone.
Some people have cultural or religious objections to photography..... i do try not to upset them.......but to say I respect their thinking is to strong..... I make my pictures in a polite way that does not require them to co-operate or ideally be aware of it at all.
This sounds like I am a right meany .....I am not.....I normally laugh and have fun with people while shooting .......I work in a way that I am very often very accepted in an area or by a community....... but i do not normally seek specific permission before making a particular frame unless its unavoidable.
French law that bans people from publishing photographs without the permission of the person featured....... even in a newspaper...... it is a pact between newspapers and the French ruling class. Its part of a raft of law that allows the politicians and the wealthy to obscure who they are........ and what they are doing......privacy legislation..... is used almost exclusively to protect the rich and powerful....... Belgium, France and other places had corruption issues that lasted decades and would have been rapidly exposed by proper newspapers....... news organizations like the hated Sunday Times, Daily Mail and The Sun in the UK......... news gatherers red in tooth and claw........ they are not in the pockets of the establishment they are their own power-bases completely separate and certainly not always deferential to the authority of government.
Cuba has given sentences of up to 27 years to journalists for things they have written......how can that be progressive.....I am a supporter of freedom........ especially press freedom...... and the freedom to make pictures unmolested by rules and social, political, legal or religious requirements.......... it is important to me!
Thanks for your kind words about my photography and your thought provoking Email
Cheers Jez XX
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.... The photography and slightly mad life of reportage artist Jez Coulson ....