Why All the Not-so-Secret Pictures?
December 27, 2007 Living in Japan
Cell phones in Japan seem to be the ultimate achievement in technology. Everybody has one, and most people spend several hours a day staring at the tiny screens to read and send messages, play games or watch TV. However, there’s another common use for these little devices and it leaves quite a few foreigners feeling uncomfortable: Unapproved snapshots.
I can think of three seperate occasions where I caught a person intentionally taking my picture without permission and, each time, it was done the very same way. A young woman would hold up her cell phone in an obvious manner within 10 meters and would wait until I looked her way to snap the photo. Considering how almost all cell phones have cameras and are permanently attached to at least one hand in this country, this means there could be even more of my photos floating around. Some colleagues have noticed similar activities and it makes me wonder if there have ever been unforseen consequences for the native photographers.
Taking someone’s photo without consent in Canada or the US can result in a trip to the hospital or a police station if not done properly. In most cases, it simply involves a subject demanding a photo be deleted, but sometimes it does get a little violent. So why is it any different in Japan?
After speaking to a few people here about Japanese photography habits I’ve learned that situations such as this are innocent 95% of the time and should be taken as a compliment. It means that someone thinks you (or your dog, or whatever they’re taking a picture of) is either attractive, cute or funny looking and they’d like the opportunity to talk about you with friends later. Chances are that the photo will be gone and forgotten within a week of the snapshot.
This kind of reminds me of summer time when barely clothed humans are crawling the beaches and city centers while everybody is talking about the people around them. The only difference here is that someone is taking your appearance somewhere else to be judged or scrutinized and you don’t have the same opportunity. Sometimes I wonder if it’s time to do some random street experiments….
So here’s my idea, and you’re free to do the same if you ever find yourself in this situation. I’m going to carry a good quality camera with me and ensure it’s always ready to click within 5 seconds. Then, whenever someone points a cell phone at me in an obvious manner, I do the same right back at them with a 10 Megapixel Digic-III powered Canon. There are exceptions, of course, but I think this would be an interesting exercise.
Do the photographers want to be photographed themselves? Would they be bothered by the 8 Megapixel difference between their puny cell phone CCD and my Canon SuperDigital?
Once I have the opportunity to try it out on a few people, I’ll let you know. Sometimes I wonder if my random street experiments will land me in some sort of legal trouble ….
Comments (3)
These kind of photos make for award-winning blogs! I can see it now, “Jason’s Random People”, or “Jason’s Random Unsolicited Photos”. You could even switch to video mode and chase the happy snappers down the street!
If you do take their picture in return, please post them here on the blog. I want to see who’s taking pictures of you.
Photographed by random cell phone wielding pedestrians…
Jason has been quite popular lately. In fact, he finds himself getting photographed regularly by Japan’s cell phone generation. What can we do about unapproved snapshots? What would you do if someone took a photo of you without consent? Snap them back…