Sociologie visuelle et droit à l'image. la demande d'anonymat en question

Abstract

Image rights affect more and more Fieldwork Photography and tend to model documentary pictures esthetics. Photographer-researcher needs to associate too ways to preserve anonymity of people they work on and with: on the one hand he has to respect the social science's tradition to keep secret their identity and, on the other hand, he has to respect image rights. In scientific writings, textual and visual procedures are associated to remain anonymous (faces blurring, specific framing, people avoiding...). Asking authorization is presented as necessary in order to publish pictures but it is not always possible nor compatible with the stakes of the research. Image rights interpretation brings up methodological and epistemological questions. This article aims to question the effects of the juridical constraints on scientific postures.