Consent in an Era of Surveillance and Global Audience 

Course Description

Consent has remained a central debate in photography for decades and often are celebrated images such as Steve McCurry’s portrait of Sharbat Gula. In 2006 Philip Lorca diCorcia and the Pace gallery were sued for a photograph in Dicocia’s Heads series because it used a man’s likeness for profit and exhibition without his permission. diCorcia and the gallery won the suit and most articles about this lawsuit continue to feature the photograph of the man who sued - another use of the non-consensual portrait for profit. Commonly these conversations end at the point of legality and consideration of ethics, morality and power dynamics are pushed to the fringes. This section moves these conversations to the center. 

As audiences can become global in mere seconds due to the internet and social media it is crucial as photographers to consider where these images are going and who can see them. Additionally global surveillance at the hand of government and private citizens is rapidly growing. Satellites, police cameras, and Ring videos intrude into public and private moments and can then be broadcast around the world instantly. This growth in technology impacts the practice and should lead us to reconsider industry standards. 

As photographers we must ask ourselves: What could happen to the subjects in our photographs? Did they give informed consent? Does the person I’m photographing understand the reach of this image? What are the boundaries of privacy?

On Consent

Read

  • “The Changing Photographic Contract: Aborigines and Image Ethics” by Nicolas Peterso

Listen

“Polly Braden: On negotiating consent” The Photo Ethics Podcast

“Anthony Luvera: On collaborative representation” The Photo Ethics Podcast

Discussion Questions 

  • How does Polly Braden extend informed consent? How does she give her subjects an”out”? What limitations and expectations does she set?

  • Imagine yourself being approached by a photographer on the street to be photographed. What questions would you want to ask? Write them down and think about how you would respond to these questions. 

  • Imagine you get a message from a friend with a photograph of yourself you didn’t know was taken. It’s the cover image of an article praising an impactful series of photographs. Imagine you do not find this to be a flattering image and your face is visible enough to be identified through a reverse image search. How would you feel? What questions do you have? What would you do next?

On Technology and the Changing Field

Read

Watch

Discussion Questions 

  • “How we see and understand photographs is always informed by a framework we have in mind, even if it is subconscious. The current framework is still focused on the past, but this is a missed opportunity, given the advances arriving in the 21st century. Theory and criticism need to move beyond today’s coordinates of the discourse. The possible ways to capture raw data, process these, and how they can be printed or disseminated mean that the definition of photography is no longer the one I knew as a child, but needs to be much more inclusive.”

Relevant Books

  • Dark Matter: On the Surveillance of Blackness by Simone Browne (Introduction)

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Consent in an Era of Surveillance and Global Audience  

Commonly these conversations end at the point of legality and consideration of ethics, morality and power dynamics are pushed to the fringes. This section moves these conversations to the center.

Appendix

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