Do Men Have More Problems when Shooting On A Public Street than Do Women?

<p> I have been reading some of the threads on this forum and I was wondering do men have more problems or encounter more obstacles than do women when shooting out in public? I have done alot of street photography and I have never been hassled by the cops/security guards or any other official--usually,I just point to my camera and smile and the responses that I have gotten have always been favorable.</p>

<p>I've been evicted from two buildings in my lifetime for simply going ahead and taking pictures (one of them a church at times with no mass), but when shooting street, it's more my nerves I'll have to persuade and bring up the courage... a lot of my friends, though, who are male, have no scruples and do wonderful street photography.</p>

<p>Well I have noticed that older men tend not to worry when I'm taking of pic of them - and they even ask quite often. I reckon they wouldn't ask if I was also a man :)<br>

I think it can help to an extent in certain circumstances - but the difference isn't significant.</p>

<p>Considering that mothers scoop up their children and duck behind parked cars just because I'm walking down the sidewalk (OK, I embelish a bit), I think there's something to this, in general. Some men simply have a more imposing or more easily misinterpreted presence than many women. My wife is quick to remind me of this. We have a code phrase in public. She kicks me and says, "Try smiling for a change, you Neanderthal." She seems to think this will help people warm up to me a bit more. :-)<br /><br />I was just walking down the street this morning, and there was some sort of corporate sponsored bicycle marathon-ish fundraising thing taking place. I walked past about half a dozen photographers. Four men, two women, all shooting the passers-by, the event, the local atmosphere. The difference (by gender) in their bearing was immediately tangible. All four men were intense, on the prowl, and looking downright predatory. Both women were smiley and social first, photographic second. It's interesting you should mention this, because I saw this just twenty minutes ago.</p>

<p>Well, I happen to recall a statement in an article pertaining to Andre Cartier-Bresson which indicated that he could blend in very inconspicuously, while using his trademark Leica. I agree that some men may have problems by simply being too physically imposing.</p>

<p>I'm 6'4" tall, I really don't blend in very easily, and I've never particularly been drawn to street photography as a photographic genre.</p>

<p>I also agree, however, that a woman photographer may more quickly set a subject at ease simply by being more social in their initial interaction.</p>

<p>I have always believed that women have an advantage in street photography because, as has been mentioned, they are perceived as less threatening. I think this is particularly true when it comes to photographing children. Few people would have a problem with a woman photographing their child but these days a single man would almost certainly be viewed with suspicion. Perhaps it is not "fair" but age, gender, ethnicity etc all impact how we are perceived by others.</p>

<p>men have more problems</p>

<p>Whenever I get dressed up as a women i never have trouble or problems taking street photographs. I am 6'4''. People don't seem to be aware of my camera. I have found my short skirts to be most effective.</p>

<p>Only a handful of relatively minor incidents in almost four decades. So few I can remember them all distinctly:</p>

<ol>

<li>Around 1969-70, I was 13 and taking photos on the train from Mount Vernon to NYC. One woman objected. No big deal, I just aimed the camera somewhere else.</li>

<li>Same time frame, the owner/operator of one of those horse-drawn carriages around Central Park wanted me to pay him for photos of his horse. I just laughed and moved along.</li>

<li>1979-'81, <a href="../photo/7339158">this photo</a> drew an odd response. I described the incident in the comment section below the photo so I won't repeat it here. Again, not a big deal, resolved without fuss.</li>

<li>2002-'03, I'd set up my Rolleiflex TLR on a tripod to photograph some downtown Fort Worth architectural studies, something I've done dozens of times over the decades. On this one particular occasion a bicycle-mounted security guard asked me what I was doing. Turns out the only objection was that I was set up in a privately owned pay parking lot and he was concerned about potential liability. A quick radio call to HQ resolved it and they gave me permission to continue.</li>

<li>I've told this story so many times I'll just copy one of my previous posts: "This photo, taken in downtown Savannah, Georgia during the first week of June 2004, was okay. A week later, when I returned to photograph the same area, it was not okay. That was during the June 8-10, 2004 G8 Summit at Sea Island. The Summit was many miles away but the Savannah streets were crowded with cops and military who needed to do something to look busy. A cop firmly but politely told me not to photograph buildings. I was using an Olympus OM-1. A few minutes later, I saw the same cop posing for snapshots with an elderly tourist using a P&S."</li>

</ol>

<p>As far as I can recall, the last incident in Savannah is the one and only time I've been challenged by any official authority figure about photographing something. Not a bad record for four decades of occasional pursuit of street photography. I don't do it daily, maybe only a few times a year the past couple of years, tho' I was more active up 'til 2005, so perhaps this handful of minor incidents isn't statistically significant because I'm not exposed to potentially controversial situations very often.</p>

<p>I can't recall any similar incidents when I was a newspaper reporter/photographer. Occasionally curious people would ask me what I was doing, but it wasn't any sort of confrontation, just curiosity.</p>

<p>It's also worth mentioning that I took photographs of family and friends in and around D/FW Airport between 2001-2005, including when military patrols were being conducted. Nobody said a thing to me.</p>

<p>What's more notable are the occasions when people actually asked me to photograph them. Absolute strangers with no expectation of ever seeing the photos. Just one of those moments of serendipity when all is well with the world and people are feeling magnanimous. I seem to get more of those types of responses when I'm toting a TLR or 6x6 folding camera, since those impress some people as quaint and non-threatening. Those incidents make me worry that I'm not nearly grumpy enough in public and perhaps don't resemble an ogre quite as much as I'd feared.</p>

<p>Overall, I haven't had any problems more serious than miscalculating an exposure. I'd say in the last month or so, I could probably recount at least 20 positive experiences instead.</p>

<p>Got any pictures of those skirts, John? ;)</p>

<p>I think there's a definite bias against men taking photos in public. Of all the accounts I've read, on this site and others, of photographers being detained for some trumped-up reason by some cop too cowardly to be doing his real job fighting crime, not one incident I can recall involved a woman.</p>

<p>An Olympus OM-1.... OMG. A terrorist and spy camera if there ever was one. Many of them are <em>black</em> too... nothing more need be said. ;-)</p>

<p>John, you don't have the legs to where short skirts...anyways, yes, I believe women have some advantage in certain situations, but nothing that should stop anyone else from shooting, it's all your conciousness as you shoot</p>

<p>I think there is some truth. My wife draws less nasty, or even curious looks than I do when she has her camera. Partly it might be because her is a D40 while mine is a D200, which is more "professional looking" somehow. But if I shoot in an area where there are kids around, I get "that" look from more than one mother. She never does. I'm afraid to, and usually don't shoot kids precisely for that reason. On the other hand, I get far less weird looks if I shot while she is around and we are chatting together. It is the alone+man+big camera that triggers the problem.</p>

<p>But on the other hand, I have been questioned about my photography twice in my life, and never had a real issue. So I don't feel like I have a problem shooting in the street. There are some sensitive subject (kids, as said above) but while I think the problem is exaggerated, I can easily see the point, and I don't want to make anybody feel uncomfortable, so I mostly refrain from shooting them myself, unless when the scene is just <a href="../photo/8481679&size=lg">too good to pass</a> (and I was helped by the fact that I was not using a reflex).</p>

<p>L.</p>

<p> I have seen Cartier-Bresson's lovely street photos and he claimed that he wouldn't even put the camera to his eyes at times just shot from the hip--like a cowboy in some western movie,his Leica was small also and he could hide it easily enough. I've tried his method of shooting and got some got pictured but,I'm so obvious with my camera--that it is a good thing that I am not a big imposing man or I might have gotten arrested already--my camera lens being my third eye,people do notice me but I am either granted permission by a nod of the head or shrugg and sometimes,just 'ignored' as if 'go ahead and take my pucture,that doesn't bother me' by the older folks--the middle-age group will either wsmile or frown--and then I know whether to proceed or back off and the younger set,especially the teenaged boys always ham it up--they can be amusing but also annoying because they want to be my fan club and have to be persuaded not to follow me about. I think that it's all in the body language--I have learned to read the not so subtle mannerisms that prompt me to either go ahead and take the photo or back off and find another subject to photograph and coupled with instincts it has helped me to avoid alot of problems and social gaffs.</p>

<p>I would do more street if there wasn't such a stigma. Sometimes, the activist side of me wants to just to set the record straight. Kind of makes a man wanna create a fake Press Pass or ID just to show people and ease their narrow minds some....no advocating it, just understanding it...</p>

<p>I think to shoot street one, at least myself, has to blend in with the crowd. I can't go into the skid row area and shoot homeless dressed in a tuxedo. While at the same time I can't go to the ritz dressed as a homeless man. The key here it to blend in with the crowd and they, for the most part will not even see you, man or woman. So, put on your dirty torn sneakers and jeans with holes and rough t-shirt and start shooting.</p>

<p>I am somewhat aprhensive to start. Then I calm down, relax, go with the flow and start shooting, I just become on with the street and it becomes one with me.</p>

<p>I think going out with a fake press pass or Id tag just draws too much attention. You do not want any attention; you want to blend in and be accepted.</p>

<p>Marta, Monika and Myriam, I think it would be great if you would put up some of your photos in the various threads. I don't know if there's a difference, due to gender, it's a complex question, but since you seem to be watching some of these threads, I invite you to participate with your photos and comments and I think you can be comfortable showing them here. Go ooooonnnnnn! Put some up:)</p>

<p>Men obviously photographing women or children would probably have more trouble. Be a good communicator and be respectful and you'll avoid trouble.</p>

<p>I like your point to the camera and smile bit. But, being a guy, I don't think that would work for me unless the security guard was female.</p>

<p>This week, I had a man try to tell me that I couldn't shoot a gunsmith's shop because of 9/11. I'd shot bridges in Philly without any problems, but this was Bolivar, WV, and I was using a Hasselblad on a tripod. I told him I didn't think so. He was with a woman, so may have been trying to impress her with how much he could intimidate a woman.<br>

I've found that asking people and shooting with something retro (screwmount Leica, Minolta Autocord) and being female works. The right people seem to be able to not-pose, if you know what I mean. I also had my little dog with me.<br>

The Autocord seems to really be excellent for street shooting as people don't and even camera-shy dogs don't recognize it as a serious camera.<br>

This from earlier in the day:<br>

<img src="../photodb/photo?topic_id=1481&msg_id=00TL8J&photo_id=9167720&photo_sel_index=0" alt="" /></p><div></div>

<p>I'm quite tired so I shall just get to the bottom line: it's harder for men I think.<br>

A question I don't know about though, is it easier for younger people(under 20), older ones(over 60) or the middle-aged?</p>

<p>Men have more problems.....and it's usually because of women....</p>

<p>.....Oh, you meant when shooting street photography!? Nevermind then....no problems here.</p>

<p>;-)</p>