I had an interesting conversation today with a photographer about privacy. Anyone is legally allowed to take photos in public places of anyone / anything they like, but is this always morally OK?
Whilst recently marshalling at the London marathon, a runner collapsed on exhaustion. We managed to get him of the track; he was a little delirious, vomiting and, heart wrenchingly, crying at the disappointment of having to drop out. As you might expect, passers-by were staring, some even stopping to watch. What I had not expected was a man with a professional looking camera to come and take a photo of the suffering man.
In the man's moment of vulnerability there was a camera in his face.
The photographer was within his legal rights, and my photographer friend believes that having this freedom and exercising it is important in order to capture reality and is imperative to being able to tell 'the real story'.
I fully agree with this freedom being important, and I think that the law is right to allow this - however I think people need to exercise some restraint sometimes and chose to do the right thing. This was not the right thing. Exploiting this man's worse moments is crossing a line.
And I hope that the shocked and horrified glare I gave the photographer in this case was enough to make him reconsider his actions and delete the photo.
Congrats to all who took part and raised money in the London Marathon!!!
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