Looking again at photographs and privacy: Theoretical perspectives on law’s treatment of photographs as invasions of privacy

Abstract

Courts in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand are increasingly entertaining claims for invasions of privacy. Many of these cases involve the publication of photographs by a media outlet. In the United Kingdom in particular, the means of protecting personal privacy has been the adaptation of the existing, information-based cause of action for breach of confidence. This has entailed treating photographs as a form of information. This chapter analyses the imposition of liability for the publication of intrusive photographs, as it is developing in the United Kingdom. It applies critical insights from leading theorists on photography, such as Barthes, Berger and Sontag, to suggest that the judicial treatment of photography is underdeveloped.