Paris France, as part of the EU, has a relatively new law on the books that protects the processing of personally identifiable information of all EU citizens with steep fines that could be as much as a 20 MILLION EURO! This law was approved in April 2016 with enforcement beginning May 2018.
I had not been to Paris, the birthplace of street photography, since 2009. In a nutshell the GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, is the set of laws that says an individual has the right to privacy regarding all their personally identifiable information. On the surface this seems like a good idea but as a street photographer you begin see problems. First, if the face of the photographic subject is recognizable that’s the first part of a potential problem. If the location of the subject is identifiable, either through landmarks or street signs, then a legal boundary has been crossed. If the person is engaging in an activity that identifies sexual orientation or is stepping out of a building thereby possibly identifying where they live or work, or even revealing racial or ethnic origins is a problem. Basically, most situations where a photographer on the streets of Paris would want to photograph a person is full of legal land mines if the person is recognizable.
Interestingly, actually taking the picture is not breaking the law. It’s the processing of the “private data” that is deemed illegal. Processing, aka publishing, or displaying a photograph taken on the streets of Paris with a recognizable person as the subject is against the law. No matter where the photographer lives. Any citizen of the EU has the option to press charges for damages against anyone in the world. So far, I’m not aware of any court cases that have come up yet, but I didn’t want to be the first!
Again, the intent of the law is keeping private the processing of it’s the EU citizens personal data. I agree with the concept and wish the US had tougher penalties on companies that do not safeguard personal data. But, I think the EU law is overreaching too far by restricting the art of a street photographer. What would the photographic world be like without the wonderful street photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau or Eugene Atget, and many others? I’m not grouping any of my work with these fine photographers, but I would like the same opportunity to create photographs in the same location as the previous masters. But the law is the law, and I didn’t want to be the first person in the US getting a letter from a French citizens lawyer.
Instead of giving up I looked at this restriction as a challenge to be overcome by creating interesting pictures without identifying the subject and exposing their private data to the world. A few of my favorite photographs are here with this article. Comments welcome!
For more information about the GDPR, you can read the condensed version here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1528874672298&uri=CELEX:02016R0679-20160504
Pay particular attention to article 9, this applies to photographers.
