Welcome to the Photography Ethics Centre
At the Photography Ethics Centre we have a vision: a world where photography is ethically made and shared. We work with documentary photography and visual journalism, where decisions about representation, consent, power and distribution can have direct consequences for the people photographed and those who encounter their images.
Our mission is to educate, facilitate, and advocate for ethical literacy and practice in photography.
We are focused specifically on the ethics of photorealistic visual media. This includes things like photographs, film and video, and AI-generated images.
What are photography ethics?
Photography ethics encompasses many things. It is about being respectful, gaining consent, and representing people with dignity. It is about the selfies you take and whether you edit them before you post them to social media. It is about filming a stranger on the train and whether you ask for their consent before sharing it in a group message.
It is about pausing to think about the impact before you click the shutter or the share button.
Ultimately, photography ethics is about power. It is about understanding the power that you wield when you make and share visual media, and it is about choosing to wield that power responsibly.
“We can all build in a higher awareness, a greater awareness, into our field craft as carefully as we build in knowledge of our camera’s buttons.”
- Melissa Groo on The Photo Ethics Podcast
“Made me more aware of the potential impact of my photos and choices as a photographer.”
- Workshop participant
“An excellent way to think about your role as a photographer.”
- Workshop participant