Photographing the Unaware Subject: Aesthetics and Ethics

Paper Summary:

The paper investigates the aesthetic and moral principles that have had a major influence on historic photographers. It looks at the issues of photographing an unsolicited subject and the artistic right of free speech.

From the Paper:

"Photographic images of unaware subjects have had a significant impact on society. Some of those images have artistic quality, and some have created public outrage. This photographic method of capturing reality can be has both aesthetic and ethical implications.
Capturing reality is not a new idea. Jean-Baptiste-Sim?on Chardin (1699-1779) recorded the plainer features and rituals of life unlike his contemporaries. Chardin's paintings of common objects were a "healthy antidote to the dreamy ephemera of Bouccher and Fragonard (which tended to shut out political, economic, and social realities)" (Cole 200)."

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