OK all you lot who think I should go and take photos of kids that arent mine, and please read it.
I was working for Turning Point that deals with Drink/Drugs and Mental Health, a young mother was in the rehab as she was going through hell with some bloke who was near on stalking her but with a camera and she had a young son who was the main reason this man was following her and guess what HE loved taking photos of her and the son. I got to know her very well but I never got the chance to met her son, because he sadly took his own life as he did not know how to handle the bloke who`d follow them everywhere taking photos of them and even when he`d come out of school the bloke was there with his camera. That is the reason why I don`t go and take photos of children that are not mine, so NOW will you please RESPECT my wishes and not tell me to take photos of kids that are not mine. Thank you.
Dave, would you not agree that there is a significant difference between someone "near on stalking" repeatedly taking photographs of the same person or people, and somebody taking a one-off photograph of people that may, or may not, include someone under the age of 16, or 18 (depending on your definition of a child/vulnerable person)?
I try never to upset anyone in life, but I do like taking documentary style photographs and some street photography which, by definition, is going to include people. I don't know why, but that type of photography is what I seem reasonably good at capturing. It's something of a mystery to me, as I dislike portrait photography, and it's taken me years to realise where my photographic style actually lay. So there it is, as photography goes, taking a photograph of people in their natural environment is what I seem to be best at... not landscapes, not sports, not wildlife, not abstract, not still life, not studio glamour with models, but taking photos of people in the environment around me, our way of life, the way we live.
Now, because of the actions of a few despicable individuals, you appear to be saying that I'm supposed to stop doing that in case I cause any unintentional distress to someone who might see me taking a photograph and get the wrong idea that it's a photo of their child? If so, wouldn't that be pretty much the end of documentary and street style photography?
Here's a documentary style photo I took when I was still a 15 year old child myself (sorry for the poor quality image, it's a scan from a print as I no longer have the negative).
I didn't ask the person's permission to take that photo and, as far as I know, the chap wasn't even aware I'd taken it. So do you see anything wrong or creepy in that? Or do you see a photo of an elderly gentleman alone in his thoughts over a pint of beer, and perhaps feel just a little of the atmosphere of the moment this photo was taken?
So, should the age of the person in a documentary or street style photo matter? In an ideal world, the answer would have to be no. However, in today's world I wouldn't intentionally take a photo of a child as the main subject of a street or documentary photo in case it caused concern or distress to those involved, or it resulted in someone getting the wrong idea about what I was doing. And, to be honest, I think that's quite a sad reflection on the way things are.