on agression

Images which idealize (like most fashion and animal photography) are no less aggressive than work which makes a virtue of plainness (like class pictures, still lifes of the bleaker sort, and mug shots). There is an aggression implicit in every use of the camera.

On Photography - Susan Sontag

I take pictures of my kid every day almost. He’s young; this kind of behaviour is expected. I do it now because when he ages into being able to give consent he might not want me to. Will he see this as aggression? I do my best to not be controlling in how I steal pictures from people (inanimate objects are different, but not landscapes I realize), but will he resist my aggression, gentle as I try to make it?

And then of course there’re the privacy implications of sharing images of people with the vortex of capitalism. Stick to ceramic mice on the holiday tree, already bought and sold a few times over.