Moral Photography
Protecting The People We Photograph
Images by Natalie Stanczak
A functional community is essential for defining the right questions.
Community & Tradition
One of the many functions of the MEMORY CULT community is to discuss changes to image-making as they develop. That includes material shifts like the discontinuation of film stocks and paper to policy developments on apps like Meta. Most commonly, we discuss the ethics of photographing people today: what to share, with what audience, how and when. A functional community is essential for defining the right questions for our practice. For those who photograph families (our own and others) how to protect our subjects is an essential goal.
Though our approaches evolve, mixed feelings are here to stay. The photographic life is one of tension: our vision vs. the boundary of our subjects, artistic integrity vs. making a living, revelation vs. protection. These conversations are vital, ongoing, ever-shifting and blurry by nature. We hunt for pillars to assist us, proceeding from a small handful of principles. We act from what is certain, which can at times be only: I love to make pictures and want share them. We observe the growing tradition of family work in books and exhibitions and notice its boundaries.
Where does creative freedom begin and end?
Maturity & Morality
“Where does creative freedom begin?” is a central feature of our curriculum. Creative freedom begins with good assumptions, personal conviction, willingness to evolve, noticing blocks and supportive creative friendship. As technology expands, photographers are asked to consider questions of authentication, data collection, identity formation, social ramifications and the purpose of photography. In 2025, a central feature of our curriculum is “Where does creative freedom end?” My favorite definition of maturity is the unwillingness to hurt others. Though imperfectly applied, absolute creative freedom ends where the freedom of our subjects begins.
Within MEMORY CULT Mukasha Dadajanova asked: “I understand the concept of making technology work for you: use it as a tool. How do I do it when the subject is my own family? Am I paranoid — a hypocrite who is not willing to be vulnerable while asking for it in return from others? There's a dissonance there, but I cannot find a way to work around it. It feels like I'm missing a key piece which is obvious, but too close to my nose.”
Public vs. Private vs. Personal
Three distinctions can help us, not because they are objective but because the difference can be viscerally felt. They are the public vs. the private vs. the personal. Loosely differentiated, what is public could be known by anyone, what is private should be known by one’s support system only, and what is personal is any part of one’s narrative they choose to disclose within a context. Context matters.
Georgia Lilley shared this insight on what is public:
“On the personal sharing, the thing that helps me is remembering that my family are real people who operate in public. We don’t live our lives enclosed indoors, hiding our faces from the world — why should it be any different online? In my opinion, the online sphere is simply an extension of the physical world. Having a picture of your kid online isn’t so different from having their picture in the newspaper, and people historically have not had a problem with that. I don’t like the idea of a culture where we need to hide our faces, and I think it leaks into the physical world as a general fear of people."
The personal is what makes art matter.
RICK RUBIN
“I definitely pause and question what I share, and how much is mine to share. I try to respect my family’s privacy. It’s a balance. Ultimately, if I would feel comfortable publishing it in a photo book, I would publish it online. My personal work has gradually expanded into something intimate but universal, and less everyday stuff like first day at school, Christmas, personal achievements or outings, so I feel like my daughter’s privacy is still fairly protected because I don’t allow access to her full personality or day to day life. My images of her are more an expression of her role as an oldest daughter in an evolving family.”
“What is mine to share?” is the right question. Photographers within a family scheme have the natural right to share what is theirs — a sphere of disclosure to operate in. Documenter is a human role, one that is now fundamentally pictorial. Rick Rubin said: the personal is what makes art matter. For photographers making personal images, this invites us to consider the role of words & speech in our work.
If you’re taking ambiguous or complicated pictures, you have to know why you’re doing it.
SALLY MANN
Mission As Protection
In a recent artist talk with Photo London famed artist Sally Mann encouraged photographers to develop the apologia of their work — the formal written defense.
“You have to know why you’re doing something and be able to say why you’re doing something. And that helps a lot if you’re taking ambiguous or complicated pictures, you have to know why you’re doing it. And be able […] to defend it in the sense that one defends a dissertation. You have to be able to talk about it.”
Mann’s family works continue to be the epicenter of intellectual, moral and legal clashes on what constitutes protection, art, and free speech in America. Writer and ICP Creative Director David Campany says this on testimony:
“An image alone is never the guarantee of truth, evidence, veracity and the rest. Always, always it is the testimony given on its behalf that matters. Bearing witness (and false witness) have a much longer history than photography and its derivatives.”
In our dialogue, member Tetyana Maryshko write of blending care and negotiation:
“The biggest (ethical) question for me is this: can I honor my child’s right to privacy while incorporating him into my work? Some might argue that no amount of depersonalisation can truly protect them, because their image (even abstracted) is still tied to who they are. Others might say that art by its nature demands this kind of risk and vulnerability, both from the creator and the subject.
I think for me, the balance lies in negotiation. I’m careful to remove identifiable details, to guard against intrusion, and to treat his presence in my work with the respect it deserves. My aim is to transform his image into something universal — a symbol or archetype that goes beyond the personal. But even with these boundaries I know the risks.”
Through dialogue a glossary of protection begins to emerge: risk, symbol, comfort, identifiable detail, time, mission & responsibility. Though protection cannot be guaranteed, responsibility can: the ability to give a response.
The ethical sharing standard is not necessarily opting out, but option in with maximal possible care.
Protective Practices in Photography
Protective practices reduce anxiety and increase creativity. Invest in self-awareness journaling. Craft and re-craft your artist statement. Create the narrative of your work through storytelling and testimony so that what you do, and do not do, is clear. Dialogue with a respectful community where exposure to new ways of seeing is continual. Honor discomfort using it as a cue to pause and think. Understand the difference between a legal contract and an emotional contract. Observe your reaction to sharing and trust your feelings as reliable to inform. Reference your idols.
Development of context allows subjects to consensually enter the world of our work and is itself a creative act. Context protects. Shared assumptions protect. Subjects are entitled to mixed feelings as they and the works age. Communicate often, especially when the work enters new forms ie. exhibition. Vision-only photography at the expense of our subjects is antiquated. Development of protective practices in photography is essential for moral photography. The ethical standard of sharing is not necessarily opting out but opting in with maximal possible care.
MEMORY CULT is an investment in your body of work & your creative process
With a Silent Seat, access the vital ideas and photography you love at your pace
Access to ALL content — No Private Community