Photography Taboo: Don't Shoot People Who Are Sleeping

Today on Facebook I saw a photo of the newly elected Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu that almost made me spit out the coffee I was halfway through drinking. I don’t know which clueless staffer used a smartphone to capture the mayor sleeping at the fruit and vegetable market, and lit it only with the phone’s flash, making it look like a scene from the set of The Ring — a complete taboo in a politician’s public-relations handling.

If you adjusted the color cast and color temperature a bit more…

For some photographers, there are more or less certain taboos on set, such as the one we discuss today: “don’t shoot people who are sleeping” — unless that fellow is dead drunk on the road with his body scribbled all over.

A friend said the staffer who took this photo of Han Kuo-yu simply had no taboos at all, which is why he produced such a work that looks uncannily like an image of the deceased.

Long ago a senior photographer told me that even if you yourself have no taboos, some things simply must not be shot — especially when there is absolutely no need to shoot them, or when you have not communicated with the subject beforehand (in the film era everyone cherished expensive film).

The senior said: whether you have taboos of your own is one matter, and no one else can control that. But the person you secretly photographed will surely feel uncomfortable when they see the photo. Humans especially are creatures easily influenced by the subconscious; when a model suddenly sees such a photo without being prepared, no one can guarantee what reaction might occur.

Sometimes a taboo does not exist because of you, but is a gentleness shown for the sake of others.