Questions and Some Answers

There are lots of questions that need to be asked already, in relation to this project. I am not sure I know all the answers! Here are some questions that have been put to me, or that I have put to myself - and my attempts to answer them.

• Is the secret photography of people ethical? That's difficult. These photographs are not in the public space. I use them only as snapshots to assist my memory. Is there a code of ethics covering such things? I don't know. I can see the difficulty. I try not to be invasive, and the identity of the subjects will remain private.
• Who decides if it is ethical, or not? I think this is the answer to the first question. I am not sure if the artistic process should take into account what is ethical. Any response to artwork is personal. It is not up to me to decide. 
• Can such photography be sensitive? I would like to think that it is. I am a commuter, I understand the feelings involved.
• Why do I take some pictures and not others? I don't know what compels me to take certain pictures, or to keep some pictures and throw others away. The composition itself, the arrangement of people, or expressions, or something else...
• Am I too ambitious about my project to care about how the people I am using as my subjects might feel? I would hope not, but I have no intention of making these pictures public. They are visual notes.
• Why am I taking such pictures, anyway? So I can remember particular situations and images.
• I want to see myself as respectful and non-judgmental, but does that mean that I am? I can't comment on that.
• Is Nick Waplington judgemental? If not, why not? I don't think that Waplington is judgemental, but it would be easy to be judgemental. He lived with the families, became part of the families, and I believe his pictures reveal great warmth and affection for his subjects. And John Berger agrees with me!
• Would I be happy to show these pictures to someone else? Yes, if I was happy with them in the first place.
• Do I need to think more about what I am doing? Always!
• Is what I am doing any different to, say, a poet making an observation about how they see people? I don't believe it is different.
• If somebody saw me taking a picture of them how would they feel? I don't think they would like it. They would feel I was intruding on them. And they'd be right. Maybe I should prepare an apology and an explanation, just in case!
• I am invading people's space, how do I feel about that? It's awkward - but then it shouldn't necessarily be easy for me to do something. Having said that, I admit that I enjoy it. I hope the ends will justify the means.
• Was Oliver Reed's A Text Message photo posed? I think not.
• Could I do this project without taking photos, just writing notes and painting from my imagination? Not very easily. But I do enjoy it more, this way. Maybe that's a bit weird. Am I a peeping Tom? I don't think so. These people are all in the public space. They are not behind curtains. There is no privacy on trains.
• Do I need to take a more ethical approach? I don't think so; this no different to staring at someone sitting opposite. 
• I dont know any of my subjects, but someone will. Does it matter if someone recognises a friend or a relative in one of my pictures? This shouldn't happen, because I don't intend to publish.
• A picture of my friend was printed in the paper, without permission. Was that right? She was involved in a public meeting. She was in a public space. I know there are laws around such things. I don't know what they are. Anyway, she didn't care. Her family bought lots of copies of the paper! And seriously, we are always being seen – in papers, on TV, on CCTV. There is no privacy, these days. I do not feel my project is about privacy as such, but it is about the private space that commuters occupy. I am not disturbing that space, I am just observing it.