Candid Photography

     During my last two family vacations, I have enjoyed sitting at the beach or from our balcony and taking candid photos of other guests with my camera that I bought for its longer zoom capability. When I read Roland Barthes text Camera Lucida for my Intro to Photo course last fall, I enjoyed thinking about how power dynamics play into photography. I think everyone is familiar with the challenge of putting family and friends at ease in front of the camera. People may project withdrawn self-consciousness or a fake persona, but either way the presence of the camera is interfering with how the subjects naturally appear. For these reasons,  I really enjoy capturing candid photos for their authenticity. Here are some I took over spring break:

    With all this in mind, I was eager to hear what would be presented in our lecture on copyright laws. Candids fall into the gray area of "personality rights" are contained in the First Amendment that allow individuals to control their image and likeness for publicity. It also contains the flip-side, the right for privacy, which prohibits any public display. To be clear, I am only interested in photograph in public space; I'm not a stalker, I promise. The issue is fuzzy because you can take a photograph of a place, which happens to have people in it, but you can't photographs of the people. However, in addition to these personality rights coexists the freedom of speech and the press.
    To tie this all back to the Roland Barthes, I think that its clear that these issues of personality rights are complicated because our relationship with cameras is also a complicated balance of power. I still haven't fully decided how to negotiate the issue. For now all I know is that my intent is not to malign these individuals, but rather celebrate them and appreciate serendipitous moments captured from a far.