February 23, 2007
"A faked portrait of my generation"
Magnum Photos
Last week, Martin Parr wrote about the hostility he encountered when photographing in Brazil in his post "Who's the lucky one?" Many of our readers left comments, including one referencing a legal case in Quebec which concerns the right to publish photographs without a subject's consent.
Street photography is part of Magnum's heritage. This example, by Thomas Dworzak, was taken at Ground Zero in New York in 2004.
Julie Gauthier, who left the comment on Martin Parr's post, wrote that if people stopped photographing on the street, there would only be left "a faked portrait of my generation."
The core issue in Aubry v. Vice Versa was the right of a photographed subject to control how he or she is represented. The case went on for years until the Quebec Supreme Court ruled in favor of the portrayed subject, in essence indicating that it is illegal to publish a photograph of someone without written consent. These laws differ from country to country.
It's an old case, concluded in 1998, but for anyone interested in street photography, the debate it provoked is still pertinent. For Canadian photographers reading this, what's happened since then? Please add comments at the end of this post.
Reacting to the ruling, a local editorial stated, "The right of photographers to move without restrictions in public places, looking for images that contain something of the richness and diversity of human life, is essential in creating a photographic history of our times and our place in the world." This editorial is quoted in an article about the case written by Marcela Fajardo for the Professional Federation of Journalists in Quebec (FPJQ). You can read the article, in French, here.
The photographer in the case, Gilbert Duclos, made a documentary, released in 2005, about the questions raised by the ruling, entitled "La Rue Zone Interdite/The Street Off Limits," in which he interviewed several other photographers including Elliot Erwitt and Marc Riboud. Duclos has a text, in English, about the documentary on his site here.
In an interview with Voir.ca in September 2005, Duclos said, "I tell people, take the risk. Because it's so ridiculous that if you follow the ruling literally, they will no longer be able to do street photography." Read the interview, in French, here.
We'd like to thank Julie Gauthier for sending us several links about the case.
Martin Parr's experience in Brazil was also written about here.
Published on the Magnum Blog on February 23, 2007
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