Privacy and the ethics of visibility

In the modern day, we strongly believe in our right to privacy but the truth is that we surrender all our rights the moment we are in public, be it a physical space or digital space. Taking photos for fun, my venture constantly includes the intrusion into stranger’s illusion of privacy. The most common way to illicit human emotion is through direct reading of facial expressions. Most commonly, I and many others will have people’s faces front and centre of the frame to evoke a response from viewers.

To many others outside of the space, it may seem unethical or uncomfortable knowing that there is a possibility that an image of their face is circulating in the world. Over the course of taking photos, having this idea at the back of my mind, i had curated images trying to keep the anonymity of people which I would like to explore further. These are the tools i would like to use to take advantage of to do so.

Usage of black and white

The choice of monochrom allows for more aggressive usage of contrast to drop the shadows.

Backs of people

It is common advice to always try to shoot from the fronts of people. On occassion , detai;s from the backs of people carry just as much information to the viewers.

Omitting faces

Most common ideas of anonymity stem from having people’s faces present in the images. Framing to just leave faces out may simply be the easiest method to exclude the face.