Street Photography Ethics | Who said I shouldn't take this photo?

Street Photography Ethics

Ethics: moral principles that govern a person's behaviour or the conducting of an activity (Oxford Languages).

I'll start by saying that after pondering whether street photography (ie candid photography) is ethical, you will have to make up your own mind, as I have.

Some people on the internet assert that we should ask for permission from a subject before photographing them. I suggest these people have never done any street photography as this is not feasible. Therefore they are, in effect, advocating for the demise of street photography. Once we ask for permission, it completely changes the dynamic and in essence, the photo is no longer candid. And imagine trying to ask for permission in a moving subject of multiple subjects.

What I do agree with is deleting a photo if someone objects to their image being captured. It's better not to argue but to just do it. I've had two people ask me to delete their photo in two years and most Sydney-siders are not worried about it. There was one man who was abusive when I included his wife in a shot I took of the street - that unsettled me for a while.

Different cultures have their own views on being photographed in public and when I travelled to India I found that generally Indians liked to have their photograph taken. On the other hand, I read that Moroccans are somewhat suspicious if they see a camera pointed at them.

We shouldn't exploit a photo, for example, on social media. The term "exploit" is very much open to being defined in many ways. Some people would say that merely taking a photo of someone without permission is exploitative. My idea of exploiting someone captured publicly is by grossly misrepresenting the person, or using a vulnerable person's image (of a homeless person, for example) for gain.

"Street photography ethics involves balancing artistic freedom with respect for subjects by considering their privacy, dignity, and vulnerability." [1]

"Ethics should not be the force that holds you back from your vision; it should illuminate the path toward it." [2]

Ernest Sweet talks about "contextual integrity": the need to display and link the photograph within an ethical context, how it circulates, how it is interpreted; not just in a vacuum.

[1] AI Overview, Google, 1 November 2025; Keyword: street photography ethics

[2] Ernest Sweet, The Ethics of Street Photography – Part 3; https://streetphotography.com/the-ethics-of-street-photography-part-3/