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Street photography panic / Fuji hysteria


Andrew Reid
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Fuji made this X100V advert featuring an artist who breaks Japanese social norms.

They pulled it due to adverse hysteria on the internet (not real world)

His technique (filmed from 00:45 in the video above) produces very interesting art with the best intention... Documenting the normal in a cinematic way. If the subject sees the end result, they'd approve 9/10... But in the moment, it just seems intrusive and a bit weird. Poor them.

Their poor feelies, big frowny face, boo hoo!

What a violation of privacy, blah blah blah.

Art is bigger than that I'm afraid.

Dear Fujifilm. Put the ad back up and stand behind your artist!

His work:

https://www.tatsuosuzuki.com

DPReview pixel peeper comments (gives me a fucking headache)

https://***URL removed***/news/6165309898/fujifilm-pulls-controversial-x100v-promo-video-due-to-the-featured-photographer-method

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I can see both sides of this argument, but personally I'd feel very uncomfortable doing this, and when I see anyone taking a photo in my general direction, I always turn my back to them.

In public spaces, you don't 'own' your face in this regard, there's no legal reason for someone to ask your permission for a photo, and they don't owe you anything from the profits they may make from it. That doesn't mean it isn't rude. 

I straight up disagree with your privacy statement Andrew, these days privacy is rare and if we don't hang onto every last shred of it, there won't be any left at all. 

Paparazi sitting in a bush taking photos through someones windows could be their art, but I whole heartedly think that is very wrong. In the UK, that's legally fine, so long as the photographer is standing on public property. Morally it's disgusting.

 

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Come to think of it, while there is nothing to stop him using it as art, Fuji using it as an advert could be an issue (what if some of those people work for other camera companies?).   or if they insisted they did not want their image used in an ad for any reason really.     I do not like having my photo taken (I once had a couple of girls photograph me when i was getting money out of automatic teller and i was pretty ticked off about it).

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I find it super annoying and I see this getting people into trouble in a lot of cultures/countries.
But, this is nothing new, Bruce Gilden does the same thing PLUS firing a friggin strobe into people's face.

I don't think Fuji should have pulled the ad though.

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4 hours ago, Anaconda_ said:

Morally it's disgusting.

Sorry mate it just isn’t. Morally he is valuably documenting and creating photos for the preservation of an age, which will be looked back on by mankind in 100’s of years to come as rare examples for their candid, non staged nature.

Morally the photos portray their subjects in a compelling and flattering way... Sometimes with a weathered and unflinching edge to them, yes, but I wouldn’t mind looking as cinematic and interesting as his subjects if I were one.

Morally his intentions and use of the photos is good.

And realistically you can’t expect absolute personal privacy in public... Why should you? It’s a shared space you’re in! You’ve gotta share it with artists when you step out of the door and try not to get butthurt if you’re in a work of art... I know this is the tricky part for most people as they don’t know what art is.

Ironically the biggest philistinism of all comes from the German government with their privacy laws designed to ‘protect’ the individual, but it actually trampled all over a major art form and individual freedoms... That the lawmakers didn’t realise this when they came up with it shows what philistines are in power today in supposed “liberal” democratic countries.

AA59867F-CBE7-4344-B86B-0EBC6DEA601C.jpeg

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Hmmm.... street photography is a topic where I get a little rant-y.  I will however resist this urge and simply offer my one frustration, which is that there is a double standard in place.  If you are a private citizen and want to take photographs of people in public then you get all kinds of reactions about privacy and related concerns, but large corporations are not subject to the same scrutiny.  Walk down an average out-door shopping mall and see how many security cameras you can see that cover the street.  Think about the CCTV systems that governments put in place for logging vehicle and pedestrian traffic, and also consider the number-plate and facial recognition that they are running on these 24/7.  I can understand the government ones are for our safety, and the private ones aren't positioned to take eye-level portraits, but the "right to privacy" argument should also extend to them.  To say nothing of the various forms of universally applied but highly targeted electronic surveillance that have been exposed in recent years.

His technique was interesting, and the end results were definitely impressive artistically.

...and for anyone that hasn't done it themselves, it's actually more uncomfortable to do in real life than it appears!

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Like art, topics like this are so subjective that they usually don't end well. I usually try to avoid such topics, but I will add... if you think you're an "artist" or creating "art" you probably aren't one and aren't creating it.

The greatest artists of all time were passionate craftsman first and let history decide if what they created was "art."

As far as this specific photographer... I know if some drunk looking homeless guy stumbled in front of me and flashed a picture of me or my family I would think he's a pervert and not an "artist."

With that said, his work is interesting, but the same effect could be achieved with different equipment that doesn't require him to invade people's personal space.

Just my opinion. 

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21 minutes ago, mercer said:

As far as this specific photographer... I know if some drunk looking homeless guy stumbled in front of me and flashed a picture of me or my family I would think he's a pervert and not an "artist."

It depends of the quality of the alcohol!  : D The price of the bottle not just a few times! :- D

LOL

E : -)

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Yea it's crazy that fuji don't make it their image that you should shove cameras into unsuspecting peoples faces.
If you want to be that guy and do it then it's up to you, but I can't fault fuji for not wanting to encourage and say you should use the products that way.

Art or not make zero difference to me, and nether does the quality or how "good" they look or appear to ppl 100 years from now.

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6 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

Sorry mate it just isn’t. Morally he is valuably documenting and creating photos for the preservation of an age, which will be looked back on by mankind in 100’s of years to come as rare examples for their candid, non staged nature.

Morally the photos portray their subjects in a compelling and flattering way... Sometimes with a weathered and unflinching edge to them, yes, but I wouldn’t mind looking as cinematic and interesting as his subjects if I were one.

Morally his intentions and use of the photos is good.

And realistically you can’t expect absolute personal privacy in public... Why should you? It’s a shared space you’re in! You’ve gotta share it with artists when you step out of the door and try not to get butthurt if you’re in a work of art... I know this is the tricky part for most people as they don’t know what art is.

Ironically the biggest philistinism of all comes from the German government with their privacy laws designed to ‘protect’ the individual, but it actually trampled all over a major art form and individual freedoms... That the lawmakers didn’t realise this when they came up with it shows what philistines are in power today in supposed “liberal” democratic countries.

AA59867F-CBE7-4344-B86B-0EBC6DEA601C.jpeg

This is not taking random photographs though, he is getting in peoples faces and that absolutely is an invasion of privacy, even in a public space.

An unwritten social law is that you don't do stuff that might revert society to a bunch of screaming apes ripping strangers apart who happen to wander into their territory. That is what makes us different from chimps, we have that unwritten compact that you do not intrude on my space and in return I don't try to tear your head off when I see you. A chimp who encounters another chimp from outside their social group but inside what they consider to be their territory will kill that other chimp. We don't do that, which is why we can live in cities alongside a bunch of strangers but chimps have to live in the forest in isolated groups. In order for society to work it is understood that you respect a strangers personal space, if no one did that then society would be impossible outside of family units. This guy is blatantly violating that unwritten rule, it is just a matter of time before someone beats the snot out of him, and he fully deserves it.

And btw, the real Philistines actually were cultured based on the archeological record, they just were not the ones writing the history books.

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