What would photojournalism & documentary photography look like -- now & in the past -- if the photographer's right to take someone's image were balanced by that person's right to say No?
The photographer's right to take has been & is rooted in a connection to power--cultural, economic, political. The poor, the marginalized, & the oppressed have never had a parallel right to refuse to have their image taken because they lack & have lacked that connection to power.
Say her name: Florence Thompson. When the well-dressed government lady in the big car stopped & asked if she could take her picture, she was in no position to refuse. She became the iconic face of the Great Depression, & she resented it. (Photo: Dorothea Lange/FSA)
"I wish she hadn’t taken my picture. I can’t get a penny out of it. [Lange] didn’t ask my name. She said she wouldn’t sell the pictures. She said she’d send me a copy. She never did."
https://web.archive.org/web/20020602103656/http://www.newtimes-slo.com/archives/cov_stories_2002/cov_01172002.html
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