In defense of tourist photography

• Autor(a) principal: Haller, Stephen F.
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.34624/rtd.v2i21/22.11917

The casualness with which tourists take photographs, coupled with this sense that it is somehow a violation of privacy, creates interesting ethical dilemmas. In general, people feel that photography is often wrong, or unethical, or rude, but they cannot articulate exactly why, and if they try, they start to realize the contradictions in their outlook. In deciding whether photography can wrong someone, one can divide criticisms against photography into two general categories. First, there are issues that arise from the way the camera, and/or photograph is used; and second, there are issues that arise from the medium itself, regardless of its use. The first category of criticisms, then, leads to advice about how best to go about taking pictures as a tourist. The second category implies that there may be features inherent in photography that cannot be avoided, and which therefore might necessitate that an ethical tourist gives up taking pictures altogether. We reject this conclusion and argue that if tourist photographers are considered to be amateur journalists and artists, then they might be similarly exempt from many of these concerns.