When to say NO to photography

[Bigwigg]

A couple of months back I spotted a thread in a photography forum that had a picture of a car, (that had obviously been in an accident) with a childs mangled pushbike under it's wheels....

This obviously sparked a pretty heated discusion, but it's a serious question isn't it.... With armies of photographers out there that are keen to get a unique shot, how far is each of us prepared to go?

Your comments please!

[mike]

Well I wouldn't be there snapping away,
it's a similar scenario of the Princess Dianna Paris crash and all the publicity that followed? I believe some of those photographers have been charged?
Just my penny worth!!
Regards
Mike

[Mortal-God]

this can be a very volatile topic indeed. I think that in some sense it is the right of the public to know... with discretion of course. I definately don't think that it would be appropriate to show the bodies or such. Yet I still think that for people just to go clicking tons of pictures of such a tregedy and trying to profit from someone elses loss is of course wrong. I don't think it is easy to take either side... on one hand its horrible and on the other people do have a right to know... so I guess I'll stand here in the middle impartial yet deciding

[autumnsky]

This reminds me of a web site I visited a few weeks ago. It is of a photographer, Lara Hartley, who works for a small town newspaper in Nevada. On the site she keeps a journal. I was intrigued by this entry: http://www.digitalstoryteller.com/YI...y/january.html In it she speaks of an accident she covered and how she photographed it ... this bi-line on one of the images:

"This image is a rather typical one of a fatally injured victim where I didn't want to show anything graphic or intrude on the family's grief. The woman's husband stood alone in the desert as the rescue crew loaded her into the ambulance." Lara Hartley

I think there is the personal privacy of the victims that must be considered. You can tell the story without showing the gore and intruding on a person's grief...and probably tell the story with more impact.

[Bigwigg]

It is a difficult one. I know (as well as you guys) that it's very easy to get carried away. I take my camera with me just about everywhere, and tend to snap thiings as a matter of course....

The woman who took the photo of the childs bike was just the same as most of us, in that here camera went most places with her. She decided not to give the shot to anyone but still posted it on the forum.

I can understand to some degree someone taking a picture of a disaster, or of dead bodies during a war, but to take a picture of a child in an accident that's another thing.

Cheers for your comments guys....

[raaf]

This is always a diffecult matter.
This has been a thread on other forums as well and nobody has an answer.
On one hand, with each picture published there is always someone insulted because of some tragic event ever happened. So it's diffecult not to insult or grief anyone.
On the other hand, you should take care of what picture you are shooting and specially in which country you are shooting. Don't make pictures of militairy objects, public builings, childeren, accidents and so on. People have been arrested for just making a picture of a airplane or building.
It's up to the common sense of the photografer what you can shoot and what not and what you can publish and what not. The example of lady Diana is a typical example of photografers not having any common sense at all.

[Bigwigg]

Well said!