Interest and respect vs Amish buggy

There was some discussion on photographing people with and without their knowledge recently around the blogosphere. Sabrina Henry was protesting against forcing photography on people to document their cultures. Stuart Siphagil was talking about the importance of making connection with person he photographed. And with all of this, I was still wondering about this image I took a few weeks ago.
We live very close to Amish community. For Thanksgiving, we had house guests, and we wanted to show them some of our town. Driving around, we went to Kalona, too. If nothing else, it is really eyes opening to look at traditional life style of Amish right in the middle of our developed world. It prompted a heated and long discussion in a car. But we were also lucky to get there in the moment I think everybody in the community was coming back from town, so there were buggies driving down the road, one after the other.
It was just around sunset, and the light was just great. I took my camera and snapped few images. I had my lens at 200 mm, I did not wanted them to know or suspect that I am photographing them. The Amish do not like being photographed, I guess they don’t want to feel like objects on the exhibition. And yet, there are so many Amish images around the Net. And also I did not respect their right to privacy. I am even more concerned, if after taking those images, should I post them online. On one side, no privacy is violated here, no persons are distinguishable, but it is clearly agains their wishes. So, should we document their culture against their will? Should we share it with other people, to show them this great example of tolerance and respectful cohabitant? What are your thoughts?

Regine says:

December 13, 2010 at 4:31 pm

Our Ethiopia tour guide told us one simple rule, which I quite liked (and obeyed): If you want to photograph landscape (with or without people), that’s fine, if you want to do a close-up or a portrait, ask (and, if it was part of the negotiated deal, pay), if unsure, it’s better to politely ask than to piss off somebody, you’re a guest in this country.
Well, not always applicable, but not too bad as a rule of thumb.
– Regine :-)

Izabela says:

December 14, 2010 at 10:43 pm

Yes, I guess it is a common sense rule, and a reasonable one. Out of curiosity- you never broke the rule? ;)

Erik Wesner says:

December 18, 2010 at 6:09 pm

Howdy, the Amish photo question is one that often comes up. You’ll get varied opinions from Amish. Amish typically don’t enjoy being photographed, but generally unposed photos are more acceptable than posed ones, which most Amish will not agree to (though, even there you may occasionally be surprised).

Unposed photos mean that Amish are not complicit in the photo-taking, while Amish have traditionally viewed posing as indicating pride. I wrote an article on this that may be of interest: http://amishamerica.com/what-do-amish-think-about-photography/

Cheers

Erik

December 18, 2010 at 6:18 pm

Hello Erik, thanks for stopping by and sharing the link to your post with me and my blog readers. I was not aware of your site. Your article is indeed very interesting and instructional. I actually never thought that somebody can differentiate being complicit or not in photo taking. And I guess I would never give a second thought to photographing a scene without people- like the farm, shop or store.