Respecting culture and subjects in photos

- Most photographers, I think even a lot of experienced photographers fear one type of shooting, more than any other and that's shooting strangers on the street. I think we've all been there, it's scary to go out on the street and see somebody and take their picture and wonder how they're going to react. And first thing, I think that fear is a good thing up to a point, because it shows that you are sensitive to that person's desire to be photographed. We all know that may be not everyone wants to be shot. What's strange to me is when I am in other countries, I often find that tourists seem to have lost that fear.

They have no problem shooting the locals with abandon. And very often give very little thought to whether the locals might want their picture taken, or how the locals might feel aboutphotography in general. And this may be an obvious thing to say, but, I am going to say it anyway. Not every culture is necessarily as open tophotography as we are and even here in the U.S., not everyone here is open to photography. So, it's very important when you are traveling, to search that ahead of time, whether photography is going to be amenable to the locals.

But, I think it's also important to understand that there is not just general statements you can say about whether it's okay to shoot someone's picture out on the street or not. I was recently in northern Kenya and I took some pictures of the localites of there, Samburu people and I am not going to show them to you, I am going to show you a couple but not a lot of them. And I'll explain why. I'll start by showing you these pictures. Now, this was a situation where we had rented a helicopter to go to a particular location, thinking we were going to shoot the sunrise. But then, these local friends of ours, who said that they would come with us.

So we got them up there and we got to do this nice portrait session with them. And this is actually how they dress, they did not dress up for this event. This was not something they do for tourists, it was not something they did because there was a ceremony or something. This was everyday Samburu dress, so it was fun to actually just get out and have a chance to hang out with them and shoot. I also got to spend sometime going in to their local homesteads, which are called manyattas. Here you can see one from the air. These things are really cool because the Samburu are pastoralists, they herd in a subsistance way.

They herd a cattle, sheep, camels and sometimes goats. And they keep their homesteads surrounded by these big piles of thorn bushes, which work great as fencing. And then even within these manyattas, are additional pens and things like that. And so it was really cool to get into to actually where they're living and spend sometime with them and take pictures of them and talk to them. But I am finding now, that I am back here looking at these pictures that I don't really want to show them to anybody because I am not convinced that our western eyes can look at images of these homesteads in a way and it's true or fair to the people there.

What I am worried about is people are going to look at them and think that the Samburu are poor. And the fact is they don't really have any money and they don't own very much. But, I would never ever describe them as poor. And I am not over romanticizing them. They are a very proud people, they take great pride in the work that they do and they way that they live. They take great pride in taking care of the landscape. And I had great good fortune to be spending time around a group of Samburu who are actually running one of the world's first community owned animal sanctuaries and rescue places.

So, I had a lot to be proud of but, we view a certain images of a certain level of what we call poverty in a particular way. And I don't think that I can show images of what I was seeing there and have people in this country or in the western world in general look at them in a way that is true. So, I am not going to show them. So, I think it's important when you are shooting another culture, not just to respect the people there while you are shooting, but to respect those people even after you come home.

Really look at your images and decide if they tell the true story of those people. Or if the true story of those people will be visible to your audience, who might have their own preconceived ideas. Hey, you can also argue, well no this is the way for you to show those images and may be change some of those preconceived ideas. And I think there is (mumbles) to that. I just don't think I have the images to do that. I am not sure how I would shoot that, or what I would do. I do know that to begin to track those images down would mean getting to know these people much, much better. And that I think is the most important way that you show respect for your subject, is you don't just go in take pictures of them, you go in first and you meet them and you get to know them and you spend time with them and you learn who they are and you become friends with them.

Then, you can actually start shooting with respect and then it's possible may be to capture images that when taken back to your home culture really will reflect the reality of those people. I can't give you any hard and fast rules for how to approach this subject. I think the most important thing is to know that these questions are out there, they are important and they don't get asked often enough. And that can change with you, when you take your camera into foreign culture or even just some place in your own community, where you don't usually shoot.